Out of the Desert
by re-tardis-ed
Summary: Emma was a soldier from Israel. She joined SHIELD to become the hero that she'd always wanted to be. But she never expected her old life to come haunting her. Steve/OC
1. From Israel with Love

**I've had this idea for an Avengers fic involving Cap and my OC for quite some time. I would like to thank my lovely friend Susan for being my beta, and for encouraging me to post this. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: The Avengers belong to Marvel, I only own my oc Emma**

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She had no idea how she ended up being in New York. She swore she was just in Jerusalem not even 24 hours ago.

Rewind to about 16 hours ago when she was just coming home. What had she been doing that day? Oh right, training the newbies that had all just turned 18 and joined the Israel Defense Forces, literally just the week before. She had no idea why she had even bothered taking the offer from her superior. It wasn't because she got promoted to Sergeant, or the fact that she was a good leader. But it was something about these soldiers, who were not much younger than her, that reminded them of herself when she first started.

Ok, fast forward. She remembers screaming. For someone so small, people were constantly surprised at the loud voice that came out of her. They always joked that a giant was trapped inside her. She was screaming at one of the girls who didn't know how to properly hold a gun and fire it. She couldn't go easy on even the girls. No one went easy on her.

Fast forward to the end of that day. She was pulling up to her driveway on her moped, taking the helmet off and holding it under her arm as she gathered her bag. She could feel her cropped hair sticking up but didn't bother fixing it. She was going up the steps now, keys in hand, vaguely wondering if her father had come home from the university yet. He was a professor of mathematics, just a small note to put in there.

Fast forward to inside the house. Gun. She had her gun drawn. There was a stranger inside her house. How did they get in? The door wasn't broken open, she surely would have noticed.

"I'm from SHIELD-" she vaguely remembers the agent saying, followed by him explaining what the acronym meant and what they did. "We know about your ability, Sgt. Friedman."

"How?" She asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"That incident last month, with the Palestinian bomber." The agent said. "You saved a lot of lives that day, the story was in newspapers worldwide-" The agent went on to say that she would be of great use to SHIELD, that she'd help save lives.

Save lives? Her job was to save lives. Even though serving in the IDF was mandatory for every Israeli citizen, she dreamed of becoming a hero ever since she was a little girl. About 16 hours from now when she lands in New York, she will slightly regret her decision in leaving her father and family behind without some sort of explanation. But at this moment she is high on adrenaline and takes the offer. Next thing she knows, she has a bag ready with her things in it and is off on a private jet to America.

Now here she is, standing before a conference table with unfamiliar eyes trained on her. She literally had just stepped off the plane not even an hour ago and it's probably the jet lag settling in that is making her feel so out of focus with reality at this moment. This all happened too fast, she realizes, finally deciding to rack a hand through her cropped black hair but it still probably stuck out in every which way.

"This is Sgt. Emmanuelle Friedman, from the Israel Defense Forces," She snaps back to reality when she hears a booming voice say her name. Who's was it? Oh right, Director Nick Fury. He literally just introduced himself to you as the leader of SHIELD. "She' the new recruit to the Avengers Initiative. I've brought her here for her telepathic ability."

All the eyes in the room widen. Emmanuelle, or rather Emma, as she likes to be called, bites down hard on her lower lip. She almost draws blood.

"No way!" Someone shouts and stands up, heading over to her. Wait, is that-?

"Can you read my mind, oh right, stupid question. Of course you can. Do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Stark, sit back down!" Fury barks at him. It IS him, it's Tony Stark. His face is plastered all over television screens back in Israel. Tony pouts and reluctantly sits back down in his seat. Probably thinking up ways to corner poor Emma later to do some mind reading gypsy nonsense on him. She is then introduced to the rest of the Avengers sitting in the room. She obviously already knew who Tony Stark was, the famous Iron Man.

Dr. Bruce Banner, also known as the Hulk. He seemed to show interest at the mention of her ability. Natasha Romanov, the Black Widow, a highly trained Russian spy. Clint Barton, Hawkeye, a skillful sharpshooter. And Captain Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America. Emma vaguely remembers french newspaper clippings in her grandfathers desk that she found when she was a teenager. Something about the Captain storming into Europe with the intent to stop Hitler. Which gained the admiration of her grandfather, who was on the run from the Nazi's at this time. You know, him being Jewish and all. Now he was looking at her with awe. Probably from the mention of her powers, she couldn't be sure.

The meeting was dismissed and she was led to a room that would apparently be her residence for the time being in the SHIELD HQ. It looked more like a standard hotel suite; queen sized bed, dresser and drawers, television, and a bathroom. The bag that she had packed was sitting on the foot of the bed. She unzipped it, taking out some pajamas to change into and quickly passed out.

Fast forward to the next morning, where Emma is more coherent to her surroundings. Everything from the day before came back to her and she groaned. The black jeans that she was previously wearing were sprawled on the floor, she got out of bed and picked them up to rummage her hand inside the left pocket. In it was her iPhone that she was terrified of looking at at this moment. but she pressed the button on the bottom anyway, and her terrors rang true. Over 15 missed calls and texts from her panicked father, and more missed calls and texts from her sister who her father had probably rang up to ask if Emma had gone over to her place. Emma decided not to call them back right away, she needed time to think of a cover story since she couldn't possibly go with, "Hi papa, sorry I suddenly disappeared. I joined a secret agency of superheroes!"

That could not do. So she simply put her phone on the nightstand and went to the bathroom to shower. Once out of the shower and hair dried with a towel wrapped around her, she proceeded to stare at her reflection in the mirror as she brushed her teeth. A Rosemary's baby haircut that was currently flopped over on her forehead, grey-not blue-but grey eyes and an upturned nose stared back at her. She was naturally very fair-skinned, but living in a desert setting gave her a farmers tan. She vainly hoped that it wouldn't fade if she was going to be living in New York. Once she properly combed out her hair and got dressed in jeans, a simple pink blouse and military boots she decided it was time for her to come out of her room to forage for food.

It wasn't until 10 minutes of mindlessly wandering through hallways that all looked the same that she had not a clue where the cafeteria was. Emma scrunched up her face. She jumped in surprise when she felt a tap on her shoulder, turning in a flash and reaching into her pocket only to come up empty. _Shit, I left my gun back in Israel. _She relaxed when she saw it was just Captain America's hulking frame towering over her. His face showed that he regretted having startled her.

"Sorry for startling you like that," He said apologetically. "Miss-I mean, Sgt. Friedman right?"

Emma smiled. "Just Emma. I'm only a Sgt. when I'm in uniform. Um, Steve right?" Saying his name in her accent sounded funny to Steve, but he supressed a laugh.

"Yeah," He put his hand out for a handshake. Emma shook it, and became slightly annoyed at the face that his hand literally devoured hers, reminding her of how dainty she really was. "You looked kind of lost, you need any help?"

Her stomach decided to make the sound of a dying whale. Emma did not seem embarrassed, but instead chose to stare accusingly at her stomach for a moment before looking back up. "This guy is hungry. You know where the food is?"

Steve chuckled. She seemed a bit strange, but he appreciated her sense of humor. "I was just on my way there myself to get some breakfast. Follow me."

"Great. Thank you." She said as she tried to keep up with his long strides. He seemed to notice this and slowed down slightly.

"You seemed pretty out of it yesterday, I'm glad you look better today." Steve said and then blushed when she realized what he said. Emma looked up at him, he did seem like he was genuinely concerned about her.

"Being asked to join a secret facility full of superheroes does not come up everyday. I guess I was still in shock over the whole thing. Or maybe it was the jet lag." she paused. "Flying 12 hours will do that to you."

They had reached the cafeteria and Emma immediately went for the coffee and lox and bagels. Stereotypical, she knew, but you don't get past Emma when she has her lox and bagels. When she went up to pay for her meal, she realized that she only had shekels and groaned inwardly. Steve, who was standing beside her decided to not not only pay for his breakfast but for hers as well. Emma blinked in surprise as she followed after him to sit down at a random table near the back.

"You didn't have to do that. But thank you." She said. "Once I exchange my currency to American dollars, I will pay you back."

"You don't have to do that Mis-Emma," Emma smiled at the sound of his voice saying her name. While Steve started digging into his plate of eggs and bacon, Emma took this time to snag a bottle of hot sauce from a nearby table to put on her lox. She laughed when she saw the look on Steve's face.

"Hey, don't judge," She snapped the top bagel back on and took a big bite. "It's delicious."

"Where are you from again?" Steve chuckled.

"Israel. More specifically, Jerusalem."

"How is it?"

"Hot. Smelly camels everywhere. And the threat of being bombed everyday is imminent. But it's a beautiful country." She mentioned the bombings as a joke, but she panicked when she saw Steve's frown. "No, i mean. It doesn't happen often. It's safe there. But it's also why every citizen has to serve in the Israeli army once they turn 18."

"Is that why you're a Sergeant?" Emma nodded proudly. Her phone decided to ring and she quickly yanked it out of her pocket, groaning at the name displayed on the screen. Her father.

"One moment," She said apologetically, sliding the bar at the bottom to answer the call. "_Halo Papa. You can stop yelling at me. I know I disappeared, I'm so sorry. But I can assure you that I am safe. Where am I? Well, it's complicated and I am not sure whether I can explain. Please don't be angry, it's complicated. I'll explain soon. Yes. Yes, I ate. Alright, I'll call Sophia. I love you. Bye._" The entire conversation was spoken in rapid paced Hebrew. She started dialing her sister's number. She looked back at Steve before she hit the send button. "Sorry, have to make a call."

The phone rang for a few minutes before she heard someone pick up the line. "_Hey sis-_" Emma had to pull the phone away from her ear at this point, and even Steve could hear a woman yelling angrily in a foreign tongue. Emma put the phone back at her ear and reassured her sister that she was safe and sound, and yes she ate, and no she could not explain her situation right now. She hung up and groaned. Steve looked audibly amused.

"My father, worried sick." She explained. "And then I had to call my sister, who was not very amused by my 'disappearance'."

"What did you tell them?"

"Eh, that it was complicated to explain." She polished off the last of her bagel, furrowing her eyebrows when she noticed that Steve was having a hard time trying to tell her something. By the way his mouth kept opening and closing. "What? Spit it out."

"Sorry. It's just that, this thing has been on my mind since yesterday."

"Hm?"

"You read minds, right?" He asked nervously. "Can you read my mind right now?"

"I would never invade anyone's privacy." Steve seemed to relax. "Some people have perverted minds, it's gets awkward fast once you found out what other people are thinking about."

"Then I guess you wouldn't want to read Tony's mind," Emma's eyes widened and Steve laughed.

"Not even if he begged and pleaded." They laughed and got up to throw away their trash. They walked out of the cafeteria and back to the long winding hallway.

"I was wondering," Emma started. "If you knew if this place had a gym?"

"Yeah, I was about to go over there myself."

"Great." She flexed her arm in response. "Gotta keep in shape, you know?"

Just as Steve was about to lead Emma to the gym, an agent approached them. "Sgt. Friedman?" Emma nodded, stiffening up.

"Director Fury would like to have a word with you."

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**I have not written a fic, much less a multi-chaptered one, in a long time, so please tell me what you think! **


	2. Files

**wow wow wee wow, I did not expect people to actually like this. Thanks so much for taking the time to read the first chapter. I hope you like this second chapter as well, it gave me a bit of trouble. I wanna thank my beta Susan again, I made her read this twice. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, Marvel does. I, however, do own my character Emma.**

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Emma blinked. "Oh, um, alright." She looked back at Steve. "I'll see you later, maybe?" Steve smiled, nodding his goodbye as Emma followed behind the agent to Director Fury's office. The agent opened the door for her, letting her into the well-furnished room. Fury swiveled around in his chair to look at her.

"Have a seat, Sgt. Friedman," He gestured and Emma sat down in the plush chair in front of the large mahogany desk. Emma tried to not feel intimidated by him, but she felt his only eye stare into her soul.

"How have you been holding up since you got here?" Fury asked. The question caught Emma off guard.

"Um, fine. Still a bit jet lagged, though." Fury nodded, taking a file out of one of the drawers and sliding it over to her. Emma looked at the folder curiously, raising an eyebrow when she read the name printed on the front: _Friedman, Emmanuelle L._ She already started flipping through it before Fury could begin to explain.

"That's your file," He began. "It has all the information on you that we've been gathering for the past few months."

Emma looked back up at him, then back down at the file that she was skimming through. Everything was there; her birthdate, her blood type, height, weight, even her parent's occupations. The thing that caught her eye was an Israeli newspaper clipping of the event that caught SHIELD's attention. The headline read '_Bombs planted by Palestinian spies uncovered in Jerusalem'_ in Hebrew; she remembers buying this exact same newspaper months ago. Other global newspaper clippings with similar headline followed after. Emma closed the file.

"How could you have possibly known?" She asked. "There was no indication of me anywhere in the article. I thought I-"

"You underestimate me, Friedman," Fury completely dropped the Sergeant honorific. "I knew something was fishy, so I sent some of my agents out posing as journalists to interview some of your fellow officers since you were there during the interrogation. Many of them spoke highly of you. Even you sister, Col. Sophia Friedman."

"You spoke with my sister?"

"Yes, and she admirably refused to give anything away." He said. "Said you weren't involved in the affair at all."

"So how did you find out?"

"One of my agents witnessed you training the soldiers on the shooting range. Everything seemed normal until you suddenly ran over to a Private Amir Rosenberg, accusing him of wanting to shoot one of the female officers, Private Neta Harel, and you proceeded to take his gun away from him. He did later confess to planning to shoot the girl, something about a bad breakup. There was no possible way you could have known that he had such an intention." Emma froze.

"You didn't lie when you said to not underestimate you." She chuckled nervously. "Won't do it again."

"Better not, Friedman." The corner of Fury's lip twitched up.

"Is there anything else, sir?"

"Yes," Emma sat up straighter in her seat. "You will be transferred over to Stark Tower, along with Captain Rogers, seeing as how your current living arrangements are a bit…confined. You have a few hours before someone comes and gets you." Fury waved his hand, dismissing her from his office. Emma saluted him, walking out and heading back to the room that she would be leaving soon. She wouldn't miss it, she was never a fan of hotel rooms to begin with. Since her earlier goal of going to the gym was interrupted, she decided to go there now to let off some steam since she had time. After changing into something more appropriate for working out in, she found the gym after asking someone.

Unlike Steve's gym, which Emma would later discover, which was modeled to look old-fashioned. This was the more high-tech gym that Emma was used to. She was originally going to run on the treadmill as a warmup for about 15 minutes, but 15 minutes morphed into 2 hours of endless running. Emma was too caught up in her own thoughts to notice until someone walked in front of the machine.

"Mr. Stark?" She stopped the treadmill, looking down to notice that she had run nearly 10 miles.

"What's this Mr. Stark nonsense?" He looked offended. "Just call me Tony."

"Ok…Tony." Emma wiped her face and neck with a towel before grabbing a water bottle and downing half of it, letting out a loud burp.

"Jesus, where did Fury find you. In a cave?" Tony joked, pretending to look offended at Emma's unladylike behavior.

"Actually, he found me atop of my mountain riding my pet goat Nancy." There was a moment of silence before Tony started laughing.

"I like you. You've got a sense of humor, unlike the stiffs here." His eyes looked down to her exposed left shoulder, noticing the prominent scar which looked like a bullet wound, then flitted down to the hebrew characters tattooed around her bicep. Before he could open his mouth to comment on both these things, Emma beat him to it.

"I've been informed that I will be living in your tower," She asked, covering her shoulder with the towel. "Have you come to pick me up?"

"Fury thought it was a good idea to have you and Rogers freeload in my lovely abode. But I don't mind having a pretty girl such as yourself living there, but I could make do without Captain Freedom pants." Emma rolled her eyes, finding his reputation of being a playboy quite accurate. "And no, I'm not the one picking you up. I just came by to tell that I may or may not have hacked into SHIELD's database and read your file."

"May or may not have?"

"Ok, I did." Tony grinned, not a trace of guilt on him. "I've heard about that bomb fiasco months ago, didn't think a telepath was involved."

"Yep, that was me." Emma said softly, swiping hair out of her face.

"So listen, Sarge-"

"Emmanuelle."

"What?"

"Emmanuelle. That is my name."

"Right. So, Sarge-" Emma sighed. "How about you use that parlor trick on me?" Tony grabbed her non-scarred shoulder, Emma's left arm shot up to his neck, digging her index finger at his throat, with her thumb up to imitate holding a gun. The nail just slightly digging into the skin under his adam's apple. If only she actually had her gun, maybe her position would have looked more threatening. Tony's hand fell away from her, calmly staring down at her as if this were a normal occurrence for him.

"Feisty, aren't we?" Emma remained silent, putting her arm down and walking away. Tony only just caught a glimpse of another tattoo on her shoulder blade that was obscured by the strap of her tank top. But from what he could make of it, it looked like a dreamcatcher.

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**No Steve in this chapter, sorry! He'll be back next chapter, promise. Hope you liked it!**


	3. Moving house

**oh my goodness! I just want to thank you all! I'm so glad that people are actually enjoying what I write. My beta Susan is always the first to read these, she's a doll. Thanks again!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Avengers, Marvel does. Up belongs to Pixar. I only own my oc Emma.**

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Emma ran back to her room and punched the wall. She wasn't so much angry at Tony, but she was annoyed at the fact that she had to look up what 'parlor trick' meant. And who was he to just go and touch her like that? Her hand absentmindedly traced the raised skin on her shoulder.

She put her dirty clothes into her bag and took out some clean ones, deciding to leave her shoulder uncovered. She got over that insecurity, why should she hide? After dressing and styling her hair into a faux hawk, she heard a faint knock on the door. It was probably the agent picking her up to take her to Stark Tower, so she gathered her bag. Emma was surprised to find Steve standing before her, with his own bag of belongings in hand.

"Hi, Steve. You're picking me up?" Not that she minded, she would have rather had Steve than another SHIELD agent escort her anyway.

"That's what I've been told." He smiled down at her, taking her bag.

"You really don't have to do that," Emma said, trying to grab her bag back. "I can carry my own bag myself."

"No can do," Steve switched Emma's bag to his other hand, holding both bags in one hand. Emma gave up at this point, following him out of the SHIELD HQ and out into the street. Tony was waiting for them on the curb, leaning back against one of his many expensive sports cars.

"Thought you weren't going to pick us up."

"Changed my mind," Tony said, getting into the drivers side of the vehicle. Steve opened the door for Emma to get into the passenger side.

"I can sit in the back,"

"No, it's fine. I insist."

"How about you both sit in the back and shut up!" Tony complained from the front seat. Emma and Steve laughed as they got into the back together. Emma looked out the window in awe, it was her first real look of New York. As the car got closer and closer to the tower, Emma could see it stick out like a sore thumb.

"What an ugly building," She muttered under her breath but it didn't go unheard.

"Hey!" Tony protested. "You'll be living there, so don't insult it."

"At least someone agrees with me." Steve said.

"Shut it Rogers, or I'll kick you both out." The car reached the tower, parking in the underground garage. The three of them got out, heading for the elevator.

"These are your room keys, you're both on the same floor." Tony gave them each a plastic keycard as they stepped into the elevator. "JARVIS, take us to the 83rd floor."

"Certainly, sir." The A.I. responded.

"You talk to your ceil-OH MY GOD!" Emma cried.

"That was my exact reaction too." Steve smiled in amusement. Steve and Emma were promptly kicked out of the elevator as soon it reached the 83rd floor.

"Now if you have any questions ask JARVIS, I'll be in my lab if you need me. But please refrain from bothering me." Tony said as the elevator doors shut.

"He didn't even tell us our rooms," Emma looked up at the ceiling uncertainly. "Um, JARVIS?"

"Yes, Miss. Friedman?"

"Woah." Emma's eyes grew wide, looking back and forth from the ceiling and Steve. "What rooms are Steve and I in?"

"You are in room 83012, and Captain Rogers is in room 83027."

"Thank you." Emma felt weird thanking the ceiling. They walked down the hall in silence, stopping right outside of Emma's room. Steve gave her back her bag. Their hands brushed during the exchange, and he blushed.

"Thank you." She said, passing the skin contact off as nothing. "Have you eaten yet? If this room is supplied with food, I can cook something up for you?"

"That'll be great." Steve said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I'll be back in a few?"

Emma nodded, sliding the keycard into the slot and opening the door. She watched his frame retreat down the hall for a few seconds before going inside.

_"Mamma Mia." _

The word 'room' was an understatement. It was an entire apartment just for her. The living room was bigger than her own living room back home, with a fireplace and a window that covered the entire span of the wall overlooking the city. Along with a huge couch and a flat screen TV. The kitchen was pretty large as well, with a dining table, a breakfast nook and even an electric stove. She checked the fridge, and it was stocked full of fresh food.

"Hummus and herring," Emma noted, taking in the inventory inside the fridge. "Someone took the time to research Israeli cuisine." She chuckled to herself as she headed to the bedroom.

The bedroom was just a bit bigger than her own back in Jerusalem. It had a queen sized bed against the wall, a desk with a laptop that was hooked up to a printer, a walk in closet, a floor length mirror and an adjoining bathroom. The walls were painted her favorite color, a very light pastel orange. She dropped her bag onto the bed and went to check out the bathroom. The bathroom not only had the standard toilet and shower, but it also had a bear claw bathtub. Emma ran her hand along the rim of the tub, checking over her shoulder to see if anyone was looking before she sat in it. She stretched her legs out to find that her feet didn't even reach the edge. She relaxed into the bathtub and closed her eyes, imagining nights of candles and wine and bubbles.

And that's when Steve decided to knock on her door.

Emma quickly jumped out of the bathtub and went to answer the door. _'I don't even like wine, why am I thinking about drinking wine in the bathtub?' _She thought, opening her door.

"I was not sitting in my bathtub."

"What?"

"Nothing. Come in." Emma led him to the kitchen, sitting him down at the table. "So I'm guessing your apartment is pretty much the same as this?"

"Pretty much." She took the hummus out of the fridge and some bread for herself, making a sandwich on one piece of bread. "So, what would you like me to make you? I can do Italian, French, Israeli. Although you don't look like you are favoring the hummus." She noticed his wary stare,

"It looks kind of strange…" He trailed off. Emma shrugged.

"It's just chickpeas." She said, taking a bite. "How about a nice mushroom risotto?"

"Sounds great." Steve agreed. The kitchen was soon filled with the delicious smell of food. Steve watched as Emma busied herself in the kitchen, gathering the ingredients together. She put music on in the background as she bustled around. It felt strangely a bit domestic. Steve didn't think that Emma was the kind of girl who cooked in her spare time. Emma spooned up a bit of rice, turning around to meet Steve.

"Taste this," She ordered and Steve did so. His eyes grew wide.

"Wow, that's delicious." Emma smiled in satisfaction, returning back to her skillet. "Where'd you learn to cook like that?"

"My mother," She answered.

"She sounds like a great woman."

"Yeah, she was." She said softly.

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah!" She answered loudly this time. Cooking authentic italian styled risotto was long and painful but the end result was always worth it. The look on Steve's face as he dug in made Emma's heart flutter a little. Steve finished his first plate in no time.

"Seconds?" Emma asked, laughing at the guilty look on his face as he nodded. "You have a big appetite, good thing I made a big helping."

They sat in silence, while Emma looked at his face. Studying the anatomy of his face. He really did look like the same man from her grandfathers newspaper clippings.

"You really are the same _Capitaine Amérique," _She muttered.

"I'm sorry?"

"You really are the same Captain America my grandfather always talked about." Steve stiffened a bit before answering.

"Yeah." He answered, swallowing a mouthful of rice. "Who was your grandfather?"

"You wouldn't know him, he was barely a teenager when the war started." She said. "I visited him in France when I was teenager, and he saw me snooping around his desk. And I found these old, yellowed newspaper clippings about Captain America storming into Europe to stop Hitler. My grandfather got captured by the Nazis unfortunately, wasted away in a concentration camp for a year."

Steve swallowed, feeling his throat tighten. "I'm sorry,"

"It's alright," She waved his apology off. "Even in his old age, he still admired you. And then when I became a soldier, he told me, "Emmy, you are my little _Capitain Amérique." _It made me so happy. Sadly, he died last year." Steve thought Emma's eyes looked glazed for a moment, but she blinked and it was gone. "Sorry, I am getting sentimental on you."

"It's alright. Wish I could've met him."

"He probably would have had a heart attack and died right there." Emma laughed. Her phone started ringing, she picked it up and looked at the caller ID. "Speaking of heart attacks. _Halo?_"

"_Emmanuelle Louise Friedman, can you please explain to me what the HELL is going on?" _Emma stiffened. When her sister pulled out the middle name card it was never good.

"_Sophie?"_

_"Don't Sophie me. I came over to your house today to pack up the rest of your clothes to probably send it off to wherever the hell you ran off to. But they're ALL gone, along with your laptop. Now either you somehow shoved everything into one bag, which I doubt because Papa swears he checked yesterday that your laptop was still in your room when you left." _Emma's breathing quickened, she ran into the bedroom and checked the closet. She didn't open it before, but now she did and every article of clothing and shoes and accessories she owned were in there. She stepped out of the closet and checked her desk. She thought it was just a computer that SHIELD had decided to give her but when she entered in the password, it really _was _her computer.

"_Emma_?" Emma placed the phone back against her ear.

"_I'm here,_" She answered. "_And so is everything else." _

_"Emma, can you please tell me where you are?" _Emma slumped down on the bed. "_Papa's worried, I'm worried. Please?"_

_"I can't. But I promise you that I'm fine, Sophie. Just trust me." _Emma could hear her sister trying to stifle tears on the other end.

"_Sometimes I wish I was the mindreader," _Emma choked out a laugh.

"_You know it doesn't work over the phone." _Emma bit her lip. "_Tell Papa I'm fine. Make sure he eats ok? You know he doesn't eat when he's worried."_

_"I will. I have to go now. I love you. Bye, sweetie." _

"_I love you too, Sophie. Bye." _Emma hung up the phone, throwing it across the bed so that it landed softly on the pillows. Her head fell to her knees and her hands covered her face, she felt like throwing up. She didn't move when the bed shifted next to her, but she did shiver when she felt Steve's hand on her back.

"It's ok, you can cry."

"I'm not crying," Emma's muffled voice answered. She picked her head up, looking straight at the wall. "I feel like throwing up. This is all messed up. I hate worrying my family."

"It'll be ok." Steve said, absentmindedly rubbing circles into her back.

_God, I'm terrible at comforting women. _Steve thought. Emma looked at him with wide eyes, and couldn't help but chuckle.

"What?" He asked nervously. " Is there something on my face?"

"Nothing, don't worry. Your face is fine." Emma smiled. She did have control over her mind reading, but sometimes a stray thought slipped through her 'filter' every now and then. She decided not to tell Steve that she heard what he was thinking since she already told him earlier that she wouldn't invade his privacy.

_I'm glad she's smiling now. She should smile more, it makes her looks so pretty. _Steve thought, but then blushed. Emma thankfully didn't hear that thought, so she quirked up at an eyebrow at his blush. She playfully punched him in the arm, and stood up. "I should wash the dishes, and then maybe we could watch a movie?"

Emma turned her TV on and figured out that she had netflix. They sat on her couch and watched one of her favorite movies, _Up. _She thought it would be an easy enough movie for Steve to understand, and he seemed to like it. Deciding to call it a night when the credits started rolling. After Steve left, Emma sat down on the couch, holding her head in her hands, and heaved the sob that she had been holding back since that afternoon.

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**Well, there you go! Some fluff and feels thrown in there. Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	4. Blood tests

**I'm getting so pumped and excited with writing this story! Especially now that I know where exactly it's going to go. I literally outlined the entire plot line to my beta Susan. And she was like, "Yes. good good. Now write it, write it NOW!" Thank you so much for the encouragement and for ripping my chapters apart with your critical eye.**

**I'm glad you're all enjoying this!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my OC Emma.**

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"Good morning, Miss Friedman." The sound of JARVIS's voice alarmed Emma out of sleep, making her fall out of bed. "The temperature outside is 75 degrees, with no chance of rain." Emma had a feeling Tony made JARVIS do that just to mess with her.

"Thank you, JARVIS," Emma grumbled, rubbing her backside. "And please, just call me Emma."

"Certainly, Miss Emma." Emma rolled her eyes, and got off of the floor, plopping herself back into bed. Her stomach grumbled, making her crawl back out of bed. Her bare feet padded over to the kitchen, making herself a simple bowl of cereal before padding back to the living room to turn the television on. She changed the channel to the news, propping her knees up as she caught up with current affairs.

"Miss Emma?" Emma jumped, nearly dropping her cereal.

"Jesus, JARVIS. You almost gave me a heart attack!" She reprimanded the A.I. as she muttered some swear words under her breath in a different language.

"Apologies, Miss," it responded in its usual monotone. "Dr. Banner has requested your presence in his lab whenever you are ready."

"Dr. Banner...You mean the Hulk?"

"Yes, Miss."

"Do you know why he needs me?" Emma asked. There was a pause before the A.I. responded, as if it went to ask what Banner wanted of her.

"He says that he has been alerted of your presence in the tower and is interested in knowing about your... abilities." Emma washed her bowl in the sink. She had an inkling that that was what he wanted. She remembered the look on his face at the conference.

"Tell him I'll be there in a bit." She still felt weird talking to the ceiling. Once she was ready she stepped out into the hallway and into the elevator. "Take me to Banner's lab?"

"Certainly, Miss Emma." The elevator shot down 20 floors, making Emma feel a bit woozy. She stepped out, finding out that the entire floor _was_ the lab. Dr. Banner had turned away from his work at the sound of the elevator doors opening and closing.

"Hey, Sarge," he greeted. Emma had a feeling that Tony had already talked to him. She approached him and shook his hand.

"Hello, Dr. Banner." She released his grip. "Just call me Emma."

"Alright. Just call me Bruce then."

"I wasn't aware that you lived in the tower as well." Emma looked around, impressed with the high tech looking lab.

"Yeah, SHIELD felt that since I could control my anger so well that I needed a little more…space." He said. "Hence why Stark built this lab, just for me."

"It is quite nice." Emma was briefed about Bruce's little 'problem', but she didn't act wary around him. Treating him like a normal human was probably all he wanted. "Er, you wanted to see me?"

"Oh, right." He held up a file in the air, slipping his glasses on before flipping it open. "I was given a copy of your file. Now it's pretty descriptive about everything. But it's vague in the mention of your abilities."

"I had the feeling that you've been 'itching' to ask me about that since you first heard about it." Emma laughed, sitting on a lab stool. Bruce grinned. "What would you like to know?"

"Well first off..." He seemed to have put in a lot of thought into what he wanted to ask her, "Do you know how long you've had it?"

"Um, my father has said that as soon as I could talk I started spouting things that people thought." She thought. "So I guess since I was a toddler."

"So your family knows?"

"Only my father, my sisters and…" She paused. "And my mother. That's it. We've kept it a secret, obviously."

"You're the only one in your family that has this kind of power?" Bruce was busy scribbling notes down on a notepad.

"That I know of."

"Huh," he muttered to himself, scribbling away. "How much control do you have over it?"

"I have trained myself to keep thoughts out. But a stray thought will pass through what I like to call my 'filter' every once in a while. Like how you just thought that my hair is a bit much," she said, gesturing to the faux hawk she decided to don for the second day in a row. Bruce chuckled, Emma cracked a smile in return. They continued to discuss how Emma could have possibly obtained her ability. Theories were passed around, like if any unusual chemicals that her parents might have been exposed to.

"If they had been exposed to anything, my sister would've developed some sort of power," Emma said.

"Not necessarily," Bruce countered. "It could have been in remission, or dormant. Whatever it is."

"So it might have happened anytime during their lives?"

"Probably. Were any of your parents ever exposed to any sort of radiation?"

"My mother was a scientist, she probably was-" Emma trailed.

"How did she die, Emma?" Emma stiffened. Bruce didn't mean for it to sound harsh, his features softened. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me."

"It's alright." Emma took a shaky breath. "Brain tumor. It was too deep for anything to be done. I was only 12 and it was hard to witness my mother wasting away for four months. My half-sister even flew in from Paris to help us out, even though it wasn't her own mother who was dying. That's when she found out about me, i accidentally read her mind. My mom died peacefully and I don't like bringing it up. My family just became a lot closer after that."

"I'm sorry," Bruce said softly.

"It's fine." Emma pinched the bridge of her nose. "Parent's die, it happens. And it's a terrible thing for a child to witness. The pain will never go away, but my mother would want me to move on and not sit here crying like a baby over it."

"She would be proud of you,"

"And that file is a bit too informative for your own good." Emma laughed. Bruce chuckled.

"Now if you don't mind, I'd like to collect some blood samples from you." Emma's face paled. "And an MRI scan of your brain."

"Um, alright." Emma shuddered as Bruce took out a sterile needle and some vials. Emma's sleeves were down to her elbows, so Bruce rolled them up, making the tattoo, but not her scar, visible. He tied a tourniquet just under her tattoo around her arm and felt for a vein. When he found the vein, he stuck the needle in, watching as the blood went through the tube and into the vial. Emma hissed and looked away.

"Funny how…I'm a soldier." She shuddered, not feeling comfortable with the needle in her arm. "But I'm terrified of needles."

"It's alright. Just talk to me." Bruce traced his thumb along one of the characters of the tattoo. "Mind telling me what this means?"

Emma turned her head just slightly to look. "It's the word _Immanuel_. It means 'God is with us'. It's where my name derives from."

"Immanuel. Doesn't that name appear in the Book of Isaiah? It refers to Jesus." Emma nodded, smiling.

"That's right." She said. She didn't notice when the needle slid out of her skin until Bruce told her to bend her arm while holding a cotton pad. He led her to the MRI room on the other side of the lab. It was amazing how large the place was.

"I'm sorry if you feel overwhelmed by all this." Emma shook her head, lying down on the machine as she was handed a pair of earplugs.

"I've always wondered where my power came from, as well." She gave him a reassuring smile.

"It's going to be a bit loud in there, but you'll only be in there for about 15 minutes. Try to move as little as possible." Emma was not claustrophobic but when the panel she was lying on slid all the way inside the machine she tried to refrain from hyperventilating. The ceiling of the machine was literally just an inch from her face, or maybe that's how close she thought it was. And the banging inside did not help much, even with the earplugs in her ears. Once she found herself sliding out, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Scary, isn't it?"

"No, not at all," Emma said, trying to look as though sitting in there for 15 minutes hadn't shaken her.

"You can come by anytime tomorrow to take a look at your results." Emma nodded.

"I hope that whatever you find interests you," Emma said, heading for the elevator doors.

"So do I. See you later, Emma." Emma waved goodbye to him as the elevator doors closed. Emma went back to her room.

'_Should I sit here and get fat or should I work out?_' Emma weighed the options in her mind, deciding that the latter was the better option. '_I really shouldn't slack off on my exercise._'

She changed into workout clothes and was back in the elevator. "JARVIS? Does the Tower have a gym?"

"Yes, Miss. Emma."

"Take me there?"

"Certainly." Emma leant back against the wall. The elevator stopped and Emma stepped out, confused. She looked around, this didn't look like the gym of her time. She frowned, maybe JARVIS misunderstood? She heard the sound of someone punching something, deciding to walk closer to them only to find that it was Steve busy working at a punching bag. He didn't notice her, so Emma admired his boxing form for a few minutes until he completely annihilated the bag; making it fly off its hinges.

"HOLY SHIT!" Emma screamed, clapping a hand over her mouth. Steve turned at the sound of her scream, not even breathing heavily. "That was…AMAZING! Do it again!"

Steve lugged the punching bag onto his shoulder as if it didn't weight anything and hung it back up. He chuckled at the child-like expression on her face. His gaze lingered on her, blushing when he noticed her in shorts. Her tanned legs were lean and muscular. He averted his gaze. "So, what are you doing here?" he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"I asked JARVIS to take me to the gym. And by gym I meant the 'modern' one." She put her fingers up in air quotes, taking another look around. "Is this your gym?"

"Yeah. They had one like this back at the SHIELD base, Tony had them build a replica here for me."

"It looks…old." Steve grinned.

"It's supposed to." Emma walked up to the punching bag, landing a few light jabs to it before looking over at Steve.

"Do you happen to have some extra tape?" Steve cocked an eyebrow before he realized what she was asking for. He took the roll of tape out of his gym bag and tossed it to her. Just as she was putting the tape onto her hands, he was unraveling his own. He watched for the next few minutes as Emma landed blows to the punching bag. Obviously not as powerful as Steve's, but she did make the bag quiver and sway a bit. Her dainty frame came alive as she punched, jumping on the tips of her toes. She was concentrated, with brows furrowed. She landed a final satisfying punch, actually making the bag swing erratically. Emma let out a breath as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

"You have perfect form," Steve noted. "You box?"

"Not really. I mean, I took a few classes." Emma started unraveling her hands when she noticed the boxing ring in the corner. "Hey, you wanna spar?" Before Steve could answer, she was already running towards it, climbing into the middle of the ring. She had her hands up into fists, waving them around in front of her face. "Come on! I don't care if you're a super soldier, don't you dare go easy on me."

Steve looked up at her, hands on his hips. "Those are big words from a little lady."

"Those are fighting words," Emma leaned over the top of the ring, glaring down at him. Grey eyes stared into blue. Steve finally gave in and climbed into the boxing ring. He didn't go easy on her, but he did have to hold back on his strength so that he wouldn't hurt her. Emma had quite the punch on her. She even landed a few punches to his stomach. And although it didn't hurt him, it would've definitely had a normal person on the ground gasping for breath. They continued on like this for the next few hours, adrenaline pumping through their veins.

"Hey, that's wasn't fair!" Somehow Emma had gotten Steve distracted, and next thing he knew he was lying on his back with Emma sitting on him, butt planted firmly on his chest. She had her legs and arms crossed, with a triumphant smile on her face.

"Yes, it was." She smirked. Her clothing was soaked with sweat and she reeked, but she didn't have a care in the world because she just had a very satisfying sparring match with Captain America.

"You can get off me now."

"No, i don't think so." She stuck her tongue out at him. "You are actually quite comfortable."

"And you're kind of heavy."

Emma gasped dramatically. "Steve Rogers, you dare insult a lady?" Steve panicked, waving his hands in front of his face as he felt it heat up.

"Oh god, I'm sorry! It was a joke! You're not heavy at all, you're really light!" He frowned when he realized that Emma was messing with him. She laughed, getting off of him and offering a hand to help him up. She punched him lightly in the chest.

"You are definitely my new sparring partner." Emma smiled up at him. "Thank you for not going easy on me. When I would spar with my male friends, they would always go easy on me and it wash't fair. This was…fun."

"I found it fun too." Steve returned the smile. Her smiles were contagious.

'_I could stare at her smile forever_,' he thought. Emma's eyes widened, somehow that thought slipped through. Steve looked worried.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She shook her head. "It's nothing."

"Miss Emma, Captain Rogers-" JARVIS interrupted before Steve could press further, "Mr. Stark requires both of you in the penthouse for some drinks. He wants you to be ready in half an hour."

Emma and Steve looked at each other inquisitively, shrugging their shoulders.

"I wonder what he wants." Emma wondered, stepping into the elevator with Steve.

"Beats me," Steve answered, wiping the sweat from his brow.

"Ugh, we smell," Emma complained in the confined vicinity of the elevator. Steve snorted, then started laughing. Emma burst out laughing as well. They reached their floor, still laughing as they walked to Emma's door.

"I'll pick you up in half an hour?" Steve suggested.

"You're so sweet," Emma teased. "Yes, see you in half an hour."

She resisted the urge to take a bath in her tub but she only had half an hour so she ducked into the shower. Stepping out she dried her hair and combed it out, sweeping her short bangs to the side of her forehead and let her hair air dry. She wandered over to her walk-in closet and dressed in a light pink floral romper-playsuit, jumpsuit, one-piece, whatever you wish to call it-a denim shirt over it and a pair of sandals. She put a small dreamcatcher necklace around her neck.

She heard the knock on her door, grabbing her phone off her desk before opening it. Steve stood before her wearing his usual blue flannel shirt and khakis.

"You look nice," He said honestly. He was still getting used to modern fashion, but having the excuse to stare at Emma's legs made him blush a little.

"Thank you." She crossed her arms over her chest. "You don't look so bad yourself, old man."

"Hey," Steve protested. They stepped into the elevator and shot up to the penthouse to meet Tony. The doors opened to reveal Tony sitting on a large red couch with a glass of wine in his hand and a ginger-haired woman beside him.

"Sarge, Cap. Glad you two to could come to my little shindig." Emma furrowed her eyebrows. "Don't give me that look, Sarge. I just wanted you to feel more at home here."

"Or another excuse to get drunk," the ginger-haired woman sidled up to him, looking between the odd looking pair that consisted of giant Cap and tiny Emma. "Hello Steve," she greeted; Steve nodded his head in greeting. "You must be Emma. Pepper Potts, pleased to finally meet you." She extended her hand and Emma shook it.

"Pleased to meet you, too." Pepper ushered them all to sit on the couch, offering them snacks and glasses of wine.

"So, Emma." Emma looked up to meet Pepper's gaze. "I heard you're from Israel. How are you faring over here?"

"Good. Good. Fine, I suppose." She swirled her red wine in her glass before taking a sip. Then remembered that she hated the sour taste and let it spill back in the glass from her mouth. She looked around with wide eyes to see if anyone noticed. Steve did because he was stifling his laugh.

"Sarge told me how Fury found her on a mountain riding her pet goat," Tony said, already slightly inebriated.

"That's actually not far from the truth," Emma said, placing her glass down on the coffee table. "There are mountains near by that I loved to hike on and I would see so many mountain goats. Although the closest I had to having one as a pet was when my father would buy one from the merchants and slaughter them himself for dinner."

They exchanged stories and laughs well into the night. Emma found that this was the first time since she got here that she didn't find herself missing her family.

* * *

As Bruce sat in his lab, looking at Emma's blood under a microscope, he remembered something that caught his eye. He dug up the copy of Emma's file from the mess of papers on his desk. He flipped it to the page with her parent's information on it, looking specifically at her mother.

Claudette Friedman, née Baumann, born in Bern, Switzerland. She went to University in Israel and went on to work as a scientist at a small pharmaceutical company. But something about that company jarred his memory. Something about a scandal that was hidden by the public eye. He went to his computer, going into the SHIELD database. He found all the information he needed and leaned back in his chair.

"Oh Emma. I know exactly how you got your power."

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**Thanks again for reading! Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	5. Origins

**Hey guys, did you know that reviews are called comments now? oooOOOoooOOOoo Totally blew my mind. Glad you're all still with me!**

**Also, my a/c decided to break yesterday when this weekend is supposed to be one of the hottest of the summer. Great. Stay cool out there guys! Alright I'll shut up now and let you read.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma.**

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"I'm sorry, _what_?"

Rewind to a few moments ago when Emma walked into Bruce's lab. Clad in military boots and her usual faux hawk. "Hey Banner," she greeted, sitting on a stool. Bruce looked up from his microscope, putting his glasses back on.

"I have the results from your blood test." Emma leaned over to look. "Nothing remarkable, you're perfectly healthy. White count's normal, your cells don't regenerate any faster or slower than they do for a regular human being." Bruce picked up the MRI scan of her brain, putting it up on a panel on the wall and lighting it up.

"If you haven't already guessed, this is your brain," he teased. Emma rolled her eyes. " Your brain looks completely normal… except for this." He took a pen and lightly outlined the edge of the brain. "This is your meniges right here, the membrane that covers the brain. Probably by training to not let thoughts in, it has somehow made the meniges… thicker. You really do seem to have a 'filter' of sorts keeping the majority of thoughts out. So when you willingly read other peoples thoughts, the membrane possibly weakens to let the thoughts in."

"But what about the thoughts that come in unwillingly?"

"That's probably just the filter weakening every once in a while," Bruce shrugged. "It doesn't seem to be anything serious because it doesn't seem to be effecting the brain itself or your motor functions. I don't think." Bruce took a light from the table, shining it into Emma's eyes, her pupils dilated accordingly. "Nope. Perfectly fine."

"Huh." Emma blinked a few times. "That's really cool."

"And… I found out how you acquired your power." Emma's eyes widened. "But I don't think you'll be pleased with the news all too much."

"Why?" Emma asked warily.

"It involves your mother."

"What does my mother have to do with anything?" Bruce led her over to his computer and sat her down. Showing her the article that he dug up. The article was about a small pharmaceutical company in Israel that was shut down a short time before Emma's birth. The company was involved in trying to remake the super soldier serum to create a new breed of soldiers to go to war. Basically, killing machines. What ended up happening was that there was too much exposure to radiation and the project was ultimately abandoned. Her eyes scanned the article, looking up at Bruce in disbelief.

"I'm sorry, _what_?"

"I'm sorry, Emma, but that's the truth."

"So my mother was involved in making _killing machines_?"

"Technically, yes." Bruce sighed, taking his glasses off. This was not what Emma wanted when she decided to continue her service in the IDF. She wanted to help people, protect her country from threats. Not kill innocent people. There were good Palestinians who didn't deserve to die. She couldn't imagine what would have happened if the project had been a success. Would she have become one of those super soldiers?

"So what about me?" Emma asked. "What does that have anything to do with my '_gift'_?"

"I can take a wild guess, but I think your mother may have tested some of the serum on herself," Bruce explained. "For some reason it didn't have any effect on her, but it stayed in her body. So when you were born-"

"It gave me my power," Emma finished. She remained silent, trying to let all this new information sink in. "So, I'm basically a product of this 'super serum'?"

"I think so." Emma frowned. "Your sister was already born before the project was shut down. If your mother had had any other children after you, they might have had some sort of abilities as well."

Emma suddenly felt woozy, almost falling over when she stood up from her seat. She held onto the workbench for support. Bruce came over to her, putting a hand on her back.

"You alright?" Bruce asked worriedly, thinking that the information was too much for her to handle.

"Fine. Great, yeah," Emma mumbled, trying to keep the bile from coming up her throat. "Finding out that your mother was a mad scientist makes for a great story at the family reunion. 'Hey, guys! Guess what, Emmanuelle's mom was involved in making_ genetically enhanced killing machines_!'" The last part she screamed in his face, but immediately felt guilty about it. Thankfully, Bruce didn't seem offended. "I'm sorry Bruce, I just need to be alone."

Bruce nodded as Emma wobbled over to the elevator doors. He almost considered going with her to make sure she was alright but decided against it. Once Emma was in the elevator she decided she needed some fresh air so she took the elevator all the way down and took a long, long walk around the city.

The elevator doors opened on the 83rd floor and Steve stepped out, having just come from the gym. He wondered why he hadn't seen Emma all day, she surely would have come by to spar with him again. He was halfway down the hall when he heard the elevator doors open. Emma had just come back from her walk but when she saw Steve she quickly ducked her head and ran in the other direction.

"Emma, wait!" He caught up with her, grabbing her gently by the shoulder. She turned around but had her hand over her eyes.

"Emma." Steve said sternly. "Take the hand away."

Emma shook her head, setting her lips in a straight line, looking much like a defiant child.

"Please?" His voice softened. Emma sighed, letting her hand slide off her face. Steve took a good look at her. Her eyes were swollen from crying, and a few stray tears ran down her face when she blinked. Her eyes hurting whenever she blinked.

"Oh, Emma." He swiped the few stray tears away with his thumb before taking her gently by the shoulders, leading her down the hall.

"Wait, where are we going?" she asked.

"My place. I'm not letting you out of my sight like that." Emma frowned. Once inside, he sat her on the couch. "I'm going to go take a shower. And when I come back, we're going to talk. Stay here."

Emma nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. "Yes, sir."

When Steve came back out , hair still damp from his shower, he saw that Emma had fallen asleep on his couch. She had taken her shoes off and curled up into a ball. Looking even smaller if that was possible. Steve smiled, getting his sketchbook and pulled up a chair to sit in front of the couch.

Emma eventually woke up, realizing that she had dozed off on Steve's couch. It hurt to blink since her eyes were still swollen from crying earlier. She swiped a stray hair out of her face as she got up into a sitting position. "How long was I out?"

Steve looked up from his sketchbook. He closed it, putting it to the side. "About an hour."

"Shit," she mumbled, taking her boots and putting them back on. "I meant to close my eyes for a minute."

"We were going to talk remember?" Steve reminded her as he leaned over to rest his arms on his knees. Emma huffed, not knowing where to begin. She began explaining what she had found out about her mother, and running out of Bruce's lab to take a walk to clear her head. When she finished she placed her head in her lap, feeling nauseous again.

"I seriously wasn't expecting to hear _that_," she mumbled into her knees.

Steve pulled his chair closer to her. "I know that it's a lot to take in, trust me. I understand. But your mother loved you and she would have never put you into any sort of danger like that."

Emma smiled hesitantly. "I know. It's just going to take a while to get over this. A long while. And probably an even longer while for me to tell my dad and sister." She wiped her eyes with the back of one hand. "Thanks, Steve."

"Anytime." Emma went in to give Steve a hug. When she touched him, there was some sort of…_spark_.

_Skinny Steve. Steve getting the injection. Steve kissing Peggy. Peggy. Steve's plane crashing._

All of these images (_memories?_) flashed before Emma's eyes. She gasped and recoiled from Steve, getting up from the couch. Steve looked up at her worriedly. Did he notice anything? It didn't seem so. His eyebrows furrowed in concern, Emma was acting like she just got shocked by something.

"I…I've got to go." She was suddenly out of breath, as if she had run a race. Before Steve could answer, she ran out of the room, leaving Steve concerned and confused.

Emma ran back to her room, flinging the door open and leaning against the frame. She saw what she assumed to be memories. Steve's memories. And she could feel what he was feeling in each one. She slid down to the ground and clutched her head in her hands.

_What was going on?_

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**dundundun. I hope you enjoyed, don't be shy to leave a comment/review/whatever they're called nowadays. Darn these new fangled contraptions.**


	6. Feelings

**This fic is almost up to 2,000 hits! Thank you all so much for taking the time to read, favorite, leave a review. I'm having so much fun writing this. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma.**

* * *

"What's this?" Bruce asked, taking his glasses off to examine the object in question.

"It's a cupcake, Bruce." Emma laughed, sliding over a wrapped package with four more cupcakes in it. "A banana cupcake to be exact."

"And…why are you giving cupcakes to me?"

"I would like to apologize for my behavior from yesterday." Emma rubbed the back of her neck. "I didn't mean to run out like that. I… overreacted."

"Emma, it's fine. It's a lot to take in." Bruce took a bite of the cupcake, he hadn't eaten all day. "Oh my God, this is delicious."

"Glad you like it." Emma sat down beside him. "Listen, I touched Steve."

Bruce spluttered cupcake all over himself.

"Not like that!" Emma said hurriedly. "Let me finish! Ok, so I was hanging out with Steve yesterday, right? And I hugged him. And… something weird happened when we touched..."

"What do you mean?" Bruce asked, wiping the cupcake residue from his shirt.

"I… I saw his memories," Emma said in a low whisper. "And I could feel what he was feeling during those memories."

Bruce's eyes widened. "You're serious?"

"Yes!" She threw her hands up. "I don't know what happened. I… I invaded the poor guy's privacy!"

"Calm down." Bruce finished off the rest of the cupcake, making sure to save the other four for later. "Has this ever happened before?"

"N-" Emma hesitated, trying to think back. "Actually… y-yes. Once. When I was ten. I touched my father and I saw a memory of him as a child. But I've forgot about it until now."

"Your power could be evolving."

"What?"

"It's the only plausible reason," Bruce said. "You said you could feel his emotions?"

"Yes."

"That's really unusual."

"You can say that again." Emma held her head in her hand. "What do I do about this?"

"Hm…" Bruce wondered, tapping a pen against the workbench. "Hold on. I've got an idea. JARVIS?"

"Yes, Dr. Banner?" asked the A.I.

"Could you send Tony down here, tell him I need him for something."

"Certainly, sir." Emma raised a brow.

"Why is Tony coming here?"

"You'll see." Bruce grinned. Emma didn't like the sound of this.

"This better be good, Banner," Tony said as he sauntered into the lab. "I was in the middle of doing some-oh hey, cupcakes."

"Those are for Bruce, Tony," Emma interjected before Tony could touch the little package; Tony pouted at her. "I'll bring some to you later." Tony's face brightened. Emma turned back to look at Bruce.

"Now can you tell me what this is about, Bruce?" Emma asked.

"Emma here can see people's memories," Bruce explained, ignoring the widening look of Emma's eyes. "It looks like her power is evolving."

"What? So you're like, a pokemon now?" Emma face palmed. "And I thought the whole mind reading thing was cool."

"I've brought Tony here to see if you could trigger it to work again. You said it happened when you touched Steve, right?"

"Wait, wait. Hold up, you've been touching Cap? What have you two been doing?" Tony interrupted with a leer.

"Tony, shut up! Or I swear to God, I will break your neck," Emma growled at him. Tony put his hands up in surrender, leer still in place. "Yes, Bruce. It seems to be triggered by touch."

"It's only ever happened to you twice, and under random circumstances. If only you could find a way to dig into a persons memories willingly, just like how you trained your mind reading." Emma didn't look too sure about this.

"You want me to try and invade Tony's privacy?" She turned to look at Tony, who looked apathetic about the whole thing.

"Don't worry, Sarge. I don't mind having you digging around in my head." Emma thought about it. She hesitantly walked up to him, taking a seat beside him. She looked back at Bruce, then back to Tony, hesitantly touching his shoulder, trying to recreate that spark she felt earlier. She closed her eyes and concentrated.

_'You have quite a nice behind, Sarge.'_

And all that did was make Emma accidentally read Tony's mind. She opened her eyes and fumed at Tony, who had a giant grin on his face. Emma released the grip on his arm, punching him hard in the bicep.

"Ow! All I did was compliment your ass!" Emma spewed a few colorful words at him in different languages.

"Wait, did you just tell me off in Hebrew, French, _and_ Arabic?"

"Oh, I can tell you off in three more languages. Would you like to hear?" Emma challenged.

"Guys, stop it. Emma, try it again. And Tony, don't think anything inappropriate," Bruce ordered.

"Alright," Emma huffed. She touched Tony's shoulder again, trying to get into the right mind frame. After a few minutes of nothing, she sighed and released her hold on him. "I don't how you expect me to just tap into someone's memories."

"Be patient." Bruce nodded his thanks to Tony. "We'll continue this tomorrow."

"I get to have Sarge touch me, I am definitely coming back." Tony looked at Emma. "Come on, humor me. What number am I thinking of right now?"

"42." Emma rolled her eyes.

"Yes! That'll never get old."

* * *

She lay curled up on her couch, legs tucked under her as she burrowed further into her blanket and popped another piece of popcorn into her mouth, relaxing after a very satisfying workout. "Oh, Wilson," she moaned in tune to Kristen Wiig on the TV screen, having seen this movie about half a dozen times already. Just as Melissa McCarthy's character was assaulting Kristen Wiig, Emma heard a knock on the door. She groaned and paused it, the screen stopping at a very awkward looking spot so she shut it off. She wrapped the blanket around herself, walking faster towards the door as the knocking became insistent. She opened it to reveal Steve.

"Go away, I'm sick." She proceeded to do a few dramatic coughs.

"No, you're not, Emma." Steve rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, well… At least I'm not a tall muscular beast stalking a poor little 4'10" child like me." Emma wrapped the blanket tighter around her.

"Stop changing the subje- wait, how tall are you?" Steve placed one big hand on the top of her head, as if suddenly realizing how tall he was and how short she was.

"Look who's changing the subject now." Steve frowned, taking the part of the blanket that Emma was wearing as a hood and pulled it down, so now he had a bit of the material fisted in both hands on each side of her neck.

"What's going on, Em? You've been avoiding me like the plague ever since we…" He released his hold on her, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.

"I'm not mad at you if that's what you're thinking," she said, stepping aside to let him in. "Come in."

She padded to the kitchen, the blanket still around her as she rummaged through cupboards. "I'm making myself some tea, would you like anything to drink?"

"Tea's fine," Steve said, awkwardly hanging around the fridge. Emma got a box of Earl Grey out and pointed a finger at the chair.

"Sit, sit. Relax." Once the teas were ready, Emma sat with her legs up on the chair, resting her mug on her knees as it warmed her hands. Her blanket slid off her shoulder, showing her scar. She simply placed the blanket back over it. She caught Steve staring.

"You're always staring at it," she said bluntly. "You want to know what happened? It's not exactly an exciting story."

Steve nodded his head.

"I got shot," Emma said simply, taking a sip of her drink. Steve waited for her to continue, but she didn't.

"Wait, that's it?"

"That's it." Emma shrugged. "I was 18, literally just started my IDF service the week before. Some idiot thought it would be funny to play around with a gun, ended up shooting me. The bullet went straight through my shoulder; I had to stay in the hospital for a week. My superiors even suggested that I discontinue my service due to an injury and I said no way. I had to see a psychiatrist though, it was quite… annoying."

"Oh," Steve said, staring down at his tea, "I'm sorry."

"I was bleeding profusely and I still had the energy to punch the guy in the face." She smirked. "Don't be sorry, I got my revenge."

Steve laughed at the image. "You sure are tough for a little la-" He stopped when he saw Emma glaring at him. "I mean-for a lady."

"Have to be. Even when I was younger, I was still smaller than everyone. My sister had to defend me from bullies..." She paused, suddenly remembering something from long ago. "I got older, my mother died. I figured out that I had to fight my own battles. Got a few tattoos, chopped off my hair, made my dad angry. That's pretty much it."

"How many tattoos do you have?"

"Why? Are you going to disapprove of me?" Emma asked.

"No, not at all. I'm just curious. People didn't really get tattoos back in my time." Emma nodded in understanding.

"Four. This one, it means '_God is with us_'." She pointed to the Hebrew characters circling the front of her bicep. "This," she stood and lifted up her shirt, showing an intricate drawing of a compass on her left side, right by her ribs; it wasn't very big. She pulled the front of her pants down slightly to show a tattoo of a star, filled in with blue ink on her left hip bone. "That was my first one. Got it when I was 17. And, this last one is my favorite." She turned around and lifted her shirt so that it was up to her neck, showing a full view of her back. There was a very detailed tattoo of a dreamcatcher on her left shoulder blade, extending down to her ribs.

Steve blushed at how exposed Emma stood before him, but he got the courage to reach a hand out and touch it to the dreamcatcher. Emma shuddered at the sudden touch.

"I used to have nightmares a lot after my mother died," She explained. "And then I read about dreamcatchers, and how they're supposed to catch your bad dreams. Ever since I got it, I haven't had a single nightmare."

"It's beautiful," Steve breathed, amazed at the detailing and the colors. As an artist himself, he couldn't help but be intrigued by it. His hand was still on her back, trailing down to trace his fingers along the feathers. He could feel the taut muscles in her back.

"Thanks." Emma could feel her face heat up. She felt Steve's hand pull away and she pulled her shirt back down. Emma turned to face Steve, whose face had turned the familiar shade of pink she had gotten used to seeing.

"I'm sorry about that." Steve meant touching her back, but Emma shook it off. She was standing over him, her heart doing a little flip in her chest as she stared into Steve's eyes. She could feel something, it was unfamiliar and she couldn't put her finger on it. Emma decided to do something impulsive, and that was to wrap her arms around Steve. He was still sitting down, so her chin rested on top of his head and Steve's face was planted in her chest. He automatically stiffened.

"What's this for?" His voice was muffled.

"We didn't get to hug properly, remember?" She felt his arms wrap themselves around her waist and his face shifted to a more comfortable position. Emma suddenly realized what that feeling was, it was only around Steve.

_'I like him.'_

* * *

**Thanks for reading! 10 points to whoever can guess what movie Emma was watching! Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	7. Dinner

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**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma.**

* * *

"_Oooom, Ooooommm, OOOMMMMMM,_"

"Now you're just getting ridiculous, Sarge," Tony laughed. Emma released her grip on his arm. Three days had passed since Emma started meeting with Tony and Bruce in the lab to 'train.'

"What am I supposed to do?" she huffed, going back to reading her book. Bruce and Tony had gotten into some sort of science project together, it was all too complicated for Emma to understand but she chose to stick around the lab for a few hours each day since the two of them were good company. She found herself becoming good friends with the two of them, even if Tony was a pain in the ass.

"Like I said before, Em, be patient." Bruce waved Tony over to look at something. The two scientists muttered too lowly for Emma to hear.

"Sarge needs a codename," Tony spoke up after a few minutes.

"Huh?"

"We all have code names: I'm Iron Man; Bruce here is The Hulk; Cap is Captain Freedom Pants." Bruce rolled his eyes at Tony but agreed with him.

"Bear Jew, I called it," Emma said simply, smacking her hand on the tabletop.

"You can't take names from movies, Emma," Bruce chuckled. "The Bear Jew was a guy who killed Nazis with a baseball bat."

"Exactly!" Emma said. "I'm a Jew, and I hate Nazis. Just give me a baseball bat and I'll beat the bad guys up with it."

"It doesn't work, Sarge," Tony shook his head. "You're not a bear either."

"Whatever," Emma muttered. "I'll think of a name later." The lab fell into silence after that. Emma reading her book, Tony and Bruce concentrating on their science. Tony spoke up after a while.

"So, Sarge..." Emma looked up from her book. "Does a girl like you have a special someone back at home?"

Emma literally choked on her saliva. "Pfft, no. _Noooo._"

"Really? Pretty girl like you?" Tony actually seemed genuinely surprised. "No one?"

"Nope." Emma shrugged.

"Well, anyone you like?"

Emma froze, shutting her book slowly. She thought about it, it was only three days ago that she figured out that she liked Steve. _Liked_ Steve, as more than a friend. Before that? No one. No boyfriends, not even a crush. She never let it bother her before, but now that she thought about it, she became a bit embarrassed. She was a twenty-two year with no track record of any kind. Now Steve comes along and she develops feelings for him? It was all a bit sudden. But she wasn't going to talk about her love life-or lack of-with Tony Stark. Or was she? Not many people got that opportunity. Emma shook her head.

"I'm not going to talk to you about this," Emma said.

"So there _is_ someone." Tony grinned. "Is it Steve?"

Emma stumbled over her words, completely caught off guard. "N-no!"

"It's so obvious. I just ran into Steve yesterday, he was asking about you. Said he missed sparring with you." Tony had now sat down beside her. "'Sparring', eh? Is that what you kids call it these days?"

"You're disgusting," Emma huffed, shoving her book into her bag and getting up. "I'll see you tomorrow, Bruce." Tony pouted as Emma waved goodbye to Bruce and left.

Once in the elevator, Emma thumped her head in frustration against the wall. For the past few days she had been ignoring her feelings for Steve, and now Tony had to bring up something like that. Her heart did a couple of backflips in her chest. She was so inexperienced in this and she had no one to talk to about it. Her sister? She'd be the first one Emma would be running to for advice, but seeing as she was supposed to be keeping her situation a secret, Sophia was out. She couldn't talk to Tony or Bruce, they were men. Nor could she talk to Steve, obviously.

"I see that you are suffering some inner turmoil, Miss Emma." Emma picked her head up to look up at the ceiling.

"Yes, yes I am JARVIS," she whispered, surprised that the A.I. noticed something like that.

"Might I suggest you speak to Miss Potts?"

"Pepper? But I barely know Pepper."

"You do not seem to have any other choice." Emma nodded her head. JARVIS was right. Pepper was her best option.

"Do you know where Pepper is, JARVIS?"

"Yes. She is in the penthouse. Would you like me to take you up there?" JARVIS asked.

"Yes, please. Oh, and thank you."

"You're welcome, Miss Emma." The elevator took her all the way to the penthouse on the top of the tower. She stepped out of the elevator hesitantly, feeling rude for dropping by unannounced.

"Uh, Pepper?" she called.

"In here!" Emma walked in the direction of the kitchen. "JARVIS just alerted me that you were coming, so I made sandwiches."

"Oh, you didn't have to do that," Emma said, helping her carry the plates into the living room.

"It's alright, it's nice to have another girl to talk to." Pepper carried the drinks out. "I noticed you didn't like the wine the other day, so is water alright?"

"Oh, you noticed? I'm sorry," Emma apologized.

"It's alright," Pepper laughed, ushering her to sit down, taking her own glass of wine in hand. "So what brings you here today?"

Emma took a sip of her water. "I-I…I like Steve." It felt weird saying it aloud.

"Oh?" Pepper put her drink down to sit closer to Emma.

"And I don't know what to do about it." She took a deep breath. "Because I've never felt like this about anyone before."

"Really? Never?"

"Yes, never." Emma sighed, leaning back into the couch they were sitting on. "I wasn't really noticed by boys like that in school, but it never bothered me. Besides, there was no one that even caught my interest."

"Until Steve," Pepper noted.

"Until Steve," Emma echoed. "Besides, most guys aren't attracted to a woman who is stronger or tougher than them. Even my male friends have said that I should tone down."

"Don't listen to them." Pepper put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You'd be surprised, Steve seems to have taken an interest in you too."

"How do you know?"

"Are you kidding? He kept glancing over at you the other day when we were all here. The guy looks at you like you're the sun." Emma's face flushed.

"Feeling like this makes me feel… weird."

"It shouldn't. You can't control who you have feelings for. And I'm glad it's Steve. Steve's a good guy and he seems to care about you a lot." Emma nodded in agreement. "So do you know why you like him? Is it for his looks, because trust me, Steve is quite the looker. And don't tell Tony I said that."

Emma laughed, shaking her head. "While I do think Steve is attractive, that's not the reason. But I think it's because he's kind of like me. He's compassionate, strong, wants to do good, and hates bullies. He comforts me when I'm sad and he doesn't go easy on me when we spar at the gym."

Pepper hummed, thinking something over before looking at Emma with a mischievous glint in her eye.

"What?" Emma asked nervously.

"I have an idea," Pepper said. "JARVIS, tell Steve that he has been invited to have a romantic dinner at Emma's place. Tonight, at 6. Tell him to dress nice and don't he dare be late. Or else Emma will kick him where it hurts… hard."

"Certainly, Miss Potts."

Emma gaped at Pepper, who was smirking at her. "Wha-wha-what did you just-No!"

"Captain Rogers has accepted the invitation," JARVIS answered less than five minutes later.

"See? Less than five minutes, the guy obviously likes you!" Pepper got off the couch, ushering Emma to follow her. "Come on, I'll help you make dinner. And do a little makeover on you." Emma groaned, putting her face in her hands. "Come on, I'm not going to let him slip out of your grasp."

"Why are you helping me?" Emma asked.

"Well, we're friends right? And friends help each other out." Emma blinked, before smiling up at Pepper.

* * *

Emma looked at the full-length mirror, clad in only her underwear. She examined her body from head to toe. She wasn't very muscular, leaning more towards the toned side. Her stomach was flat, with a four-pack. She flexed an arm, watching as her muscles bulged. Emma turned to look at herself from another angle; she was quite bottom heavy. Hence the attention she got from Tony about it. But up top, there wasn't much. She frowned, crossing her arms over her chest.

'_Steve also has a nice-_' She stopped herself, smacking herself in the head. '_No! Don't think that-but it's true. You know it's true._'

Pepper entered the room with a bunch of clothes in hand, making Emma try and cover herself. Pepper waved her off. "We're both girls here, it's fine. No need to be so shy."

"I'm not shy," Emma grumbled. Pepper chuckled, giving the clothes to her.

"Here, try this on. I think it will fit you." Emma took the bundle and ducked into the closet to change. She came out wearing a simple tight tube-topped red dress, with a pair of black stockings on under it. She had never worn stockings and honestly never wanted to wear them again, they made her legs itch.

"Stop scratching your legs, you're going to make the stockings run." Pepper smacked Emma's hands away from her legs. "Now straighten up. Let me see you. Oh, you look beautiful. Notice how the stockings make your legs look longer?" Emma couldn't help but agree, even if they were annoying itching things. "Turn around. Yup, Steve's going to be all over you."

"Oh stop." Emma raked a hand through her hair, but then remembered that she had neatly combed it down and quickly fixed it. Emma slipped on a pair of black heels, giving her an extra four inches. She wobbled like Bambi in them.

"Now let me do your makeup." Before Emma knew it she was sat down and had Pepper brushing eyeshadow onto her eyes.

"Pepper, just because I don't wear make up doesn't mean I don't know how to use it," Emma complained under shut eyes.

"Hush. Let me have some fun, here." Pepper grabbed Emma by her chin, looking at her face closely. "How is your skin so clear? It practically glows." Emma shrugged.

"I live in a desert?" Pepper told her to open her mouth to let her put the lipstick on.

"Alright. You're done! Take a look." Emma looked in the mirror, barely recognizing herself. Gold and copper eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara were on her eyes, some light blush on her cheeks, and light pink lipstick on her lips. She turned to look at Pepper with a big smile.

"I look pretty... "

"Of course you do. Now let's go to your place and start dinner." They went down to the 83rd floor, making sure they didn't run into Steve. They didn't and ducked into Emma's apartment. They decided upon a dinner consisting of stuffed peppers, baked salmon, garden salad, and a homemade New York-styled cheesecake. Pepper even went ahead and put a candle in the middle of the table, Emma of course protested but Pepper said it would make the whole thing more 'romantic.'

"It's almost six, you should go," Emma said, finishing up setting the table.

"Oh, I forgot to give you this." Pepper dug through her purse, taking out a large intricate gold dreamcatcher necklace. Emma's mouth fell open. "I heard you're into dream catchers, so I got you this but I couldn't find the right time to give it you." Pepper slipped it around Emma's neck. "Looks great, and matches with your dress."

"Thank you, Pepper." Emma led her to the door.

"You're welcome. If Steve doesn't fall for you after this, I'll kick his ass myself." Emma laughed, giving Pepper a hug before the taller woman left. Emma collapsed into a chair, waiting for the clock to hit six. It was 10 minutes after six when she heard Steve knocking on the door.

"You're late, Pepper said I have the right to beat you up," Emma muttered, stopping about two feet from the door. Nervously she smoothed down her dress, checked her stockings for any runs or rips, and straightened out the necklace hanging around her neck. It looked very expensive. Steve knocked again.

"C-coming!" Emma called. "One second!" She made the sign of the Star of David on her chest to calm herself. Finally, she worked up the courage to open the door and there was Steve, wearing a blue dress shirt that hugged his muscles and black slacks.

"Wow…" He stared down at Emma, face flushed and just as nervous as her. She could feel his eyes raking over her. "I-I mean, hey."

Emma smiled at him and wobbled out of the way to let Steve in before wobbling over to the kitchen. Just as she was about to fall right on her face, Steve caught her by the arm, leading her to the kitchen himself.

"You ok?" Emma grunted, taking the heels off and flinging them out of her sight.

"Perfect." She smiled, hands on her hips. Steve laughed, relieved that Emma was acting like herself. She led him to the kitchen, the room dimmed with the candle shining on the middle of the table.

"Romantic dinner, huh?" Steve asked softly, face already flushing. Emma looked from him to the candle, before blowing it out. It was a bit too much and she didn't want Steve feeling uncomfortable. Emma laughed nervously.

"Oh, JARVIS... Must have… misheard me. Or something."

"Then why are you dressed… like that?" Steve gestured to her outfit. Emma frowned, trying to dig herself out of the hole she already found herself digging. She was nervous and she could tell that Steve was nervous. Why did she let Pepper talk her into this? She could've just continued with her life, completely ignoring her feelings for Steve

But what if Steve got himself a girlfriend? Thinking this, Emma realized that she didn't want such a thing. She was Emmanuelle Friedman, former soldier of the IDF, now a member of the Avengers. She wouldn't let Steve get away from her. So she shoved down her nervousness and took a deep breath, poking Steve in the chest and looked him straight in the eye.

"Actually… this_ is_ a romantic dinner. I wanted to dress up and look pretty for _you_ and I cooked up all this food because I want to sit down and have a nice night. And… and… " Emma's speech faltered when she saw Steve smiling, trying to stifle his laughter. "You better not be laughing at me!"

"I'm not, I swear." He snorted. "Don't worry, I like you too."

Emma blushed, watching as Steve pulled a chair out for her to sit on. Emma sat, Steve taking the seat next to her. It seemed as though Steve only just noticed all the food on the table and looked at Emma in awe.

"You made all this? You really didn't have to do that." Emma smirked, letting herself soak up the praise even though it wasn't just her that made dinner. But Steve didn't have to know.

"Yes, I did. So go ahead and… 'dig in'?" Steve took her advice and did, she could tell that he was enjoying it when he was already onto his second helping of peppers and salmon.

"You eat a lot, don't you?" Emma asked, which made Steve look up and smile shyly.

"You know, in my time, a dame didn't ask a fella out." Emma furrowed her eyes at him. "Uh, I mean-women didn't ask men out. It was usually the other way around."

"Oh… oh!" Realization hit Emma and she covered her face with her hand. She looked back at him. "Well, times have changed. And trust me, it took a lot to even think of doing any of this."

"I'm glad you did." Steve smiled.

"This seems more terrifying than the battlefield," Emma chuckled nervously, looking down at her lap. Steve leaned over and took hold of her hand, Emma looked up to look into his eyes. Steve looked like he was going to say something but Emma pulled her hand away when she heard her phone ring.

"Sorry, I'll just go… and get that." She got up and grabbed her phone from where it was sitting on the coffee table. _"Halo Sophie-"_

_"Emma, I know. I know everything."_

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**Dundundun, a cliffhanger! Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	8. Confrontations

**We have reached well over 3,000 hits, woaaaaaaah. You guys are too much, I'm speechless. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I killed my poor beta with the fluff. I hope the fluff kills you too. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own The Avengers, i only own my oc Emma (and her family)**

* * *

"You've been talking with my sister?" Emma screamed, storming into Bruce's lab with Steve right behind her.

"Did you get all dressed up for me?" Tony grinned. "You should do that more often. Your butt looks divine."

"Don't change the subject," Emma was in no mood for fun and games. "My sister just called me up telling me that you've pretty much told her everything."

"So what if I did?" Emma's mouth dropped in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" Tony shrugged. "You had no right. My sister wasn't supposed to know anything!"

"Sarge, honey. Calm down, she seemed to take the whole thing pretty well."

"It doesn't matter!" Emma huffed. Bruce and Steve looked at each other uncertainly. Emma was usually so calm and collected, a bit goofy even. But she was in 'soldier mode' now, her stance completely changed; back straight, feet apart, she looked like she was ready to beat Tony to a pulp. Her tone didn't even seem to match her small frame. Steve suddenly remembered Emma mentioning how people thought there was a giant trapped inside her. Now he was thinking how this seemed very accurate. It was only when Emma took a random tool from the workbench and aimed to hit Tony with it that Steve grabbed her from around the shoulders before she could swing.

"Emma, stand down." He ordered. Emma squirmed in his hold, he was too strong for her to escape. "Sergeant, stand down!"

Emma stopped squirming, still breathing heavily. "Pulling rank on me, huh?" She dropped the tool in her hand and Steve released his hold on her. Emma noticed a run in her stocking, and groaned. This whole night was ruined, and her temper wasn't helping. She looked at Tony.

"I'm sorry. It's just…you had no right to do that…" She smoothed down the hair on the back of her neck. "How'd you even get my sister's number?"

"I have my ways." Tony said mysteriously, with a grin. He put his hand out. "You're right. I had no right to do that. Truce?"

Emma looked at his hand, she sighed. "Truce." She grabbed his hand, and she felt a _spark_.

_"Look what I made, daddy!"_

_"Tony, now now. I'm busy!" _

Emma quickly pulled her hand away. She just saw Tony as a child, she could feel his excitement and his fathers frustration, anger, annoyance. Emma looked up at him, getting worried at his wide eyes.

"Sarge, your eyes," Bruce seemed to notice it too.

"Your eyes just turned…white." Bruce came over to take a closer look, but Emma's eyes had already changed back to their normal grey color.

"Wait, what just happened?" Steve had been standing behind Emma, so now he walked around to face her.

"You saw Tony's memories, didn't you?" Bruce asked. Emma bit her lip, she didn't want Steve to know but now he probably might. "What did you see?"

"Uh, him…as a child. He wanted to show his father something but he just…told him to go away." Emma noticed the brief flicker of pain in Tony's eyes, but it was quickly replaced by his usual playboy grin.

"So you saw the old man, huh?" Emma nodded.

"Can someone please tell me what's going on?" Steve interjected.

"Emma here can see people's memories. We've been training her for the past few days." Tony pointed out, Steve looked at Emma for answers.

"I saw some of your memories the other day," Emma recoiled at the look of hurt that appeared in his eyes. "I didn't want to tell you because I didn't want you to get mad at me for invading your privacy."

"You should've told me in the first place. Was that when we hugged and you ran off?" Emma nodded.

"I didn't understand what was going on. I'm sorry, but I understand if you're angry with me." Steve shook his head.

"I'm not mad. Just…hurt and confused." Steve muttered.

"We should leave the two lovebirds alone," Tony whispered to Bruce but it was loud enough for Emma and Steve to hear. "I've never been a big fan of lover's quarrels."

"Shut up, Tony." Emma huffed, grabbing Steve's hand and dragging him out. They stood silently in the elevator as it rode back up to the 83rd floor. The doors opened and Emma was the first to get out, Steve grabbed her by the hand and turned her around.

"I'm not angry." He said, carefully enunciating his words. "I just wish you could've told me."

"I already said that I wouldn't get in your head, and I didn't want something like this losing your trust in me." Emma paused. "There's something else that I haven't told you."

"And what's that?"

"Random thoughts do get in every now and then into my head without my control…" She bit her lip. "I may or may not have known for a while that you like my smile."

Steve groaned, covered his face in his hands. Emma hesitantly hugged him around the waist.

"I went from hurt to embarrassed in seconds flat," He mumbled. Emma looked up at him, the smile that he loved so much was plastered on her face. "I'm glad you told me."

"Do you want to know what I saw? I mean, your memories." She asked. Steve wrapped his arms around her, he shook his head.

"Nah. I'm here now, I should learn to let go of the past." He looked down at her. "You're my future." He bent down to plant a kiss to her forehead, Emma's heart did a couple of backflips. She pulled back from him, but held his hands by the fingertips.

"I should probably make a Skype call to my sister," She smiled nervously.

* * *

"New York, huh?" Sophia Friedman leaned back in her chair on the other side of the screen, having the same grey eyes and black hair as her sister, looking much like an older version of Emma with long hair.

"Yup." Emma said.

"And you're apart of the Avengers?" Sophia asked. "This league of what? Superheroes?"

"Yup." Emma suddenly adopted one-word answers.

"My little sister is a superhero," Sophia smiled. "If you were here I would pinch your little cheek. When did you get so grown up?"

"I'm only three years younger than you, Sophie," Emma rolled her eyes. "You're not mad?"

"Of course I am mad!" Sophia cried. "Getting a call from Tony Stark, _Tony Stark, _doesn't just happen everyday. I pick up my phone and he says 'Hello this is Tony Stark' and then starts going on about you!"

"Yeah…he's quite a character."

"And then this tall, one-eyed man appears in my house. Said his was Nick Fury and that he's the director of SHIELD." Emma and Steve looked at each other in surprise. "Gave me a heart attack. I drew my gun on him, but he just warned me to not tell anyone what I know."

"Have you told Papa anything?" Emma asked.

"Just that you're in New York, that's it." Sophia answered. "And I've been telling everyone here that you're on a little 'vacation'."

Emma sighed. "Thanks, Sophie."

"Now the _real _question is…" Sophia leaned in to get a better look at the screen. "Who is that handsome man sitting next to you?"

Steve blushed. "Pleased to meet you, ma'am. I'm Captain Steve Rogers."

"Oh, a captain? How cute. I outrank you." Her eyes narrowed. "I'm Col. Sophia Friedman, don't ever call me ma'am again. I'm not that old."

"Yes, ma'-I mean, Sophia." Sophia laughed.

"Were you two just on a date? Emma, is that why you're wearing a dress and _makeup?" _Sophia gasped, Emma rolled her eyes.

"Yes, we were on a date." Emma answered. Sophia looked at Steve with narrowed eyes, pointing a finger at him.

"This is an order, Captain. You better take care of my baby sister because you are the first person she has ever liked and you better treat her right."

"_Sophia Cecelia, will you please shut your mouth?" _Emma hissed in Hebrew.

"Don't pull the middle name card on me, _Emmanuelle Louise_." Sophia said in english. She looked back behind her when she heard someone call her name. "_Coming! _Listen, I've got to go. It's really late here and Tristan's telling me to come to bed. I love you. Call me tomorrow. Bye." Sophia ended the call and Emma turned the program off. She leaned back in her own chair.

"Tristan's her boyfriend." She explained.

Steve nodded, but a huge smile had grown on his face. "So, first person you ever liked?"

Emma sighed, punching him in the arm. "My sister has a big mouth."

"I'm honored, to be honest."

"You didn't need to know, it's kind of embarrassing," Emma groaned, blushing when Steve gave her another chaste kiss on the forehead.

"It's late here too, you should get some rest." He stood up, taking one last look at her. "Did I mention that you look beautiful?"

Emma smiled. "Thanks. You don't look so bad yourself. Night, Steve."

"Night, Em."

* * *

**woaaaah, no cliffhanger for you guys. Next chapter though muahaha. Ya'll should follow me on tumblr, I'm re-tardis-ed on there too. Don't be shy to leave a review! **


	9. Wreckage

**I don't have much to say except to thank you all so much. I know I thank you every chapter, but I mean it! We're up to well over 4,000 hits, I swear when I first started this I didn't think anyone would like it. Happy reading!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma.**

* * *

Emma found herself being seated at the same conference table where she first met the Avengers. Sat between Steve and Bruce, Tony sat across from her with Agents Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton. She was told they had been on an assignment and just got back. Director Fury was standing at the front of the table.

"We have a situation," Fury stated, gravely. He gestured to the screen behind him, which lit up to show a slideshow. "Bombs have been going off all around the city, in case you haven't noticed. The perpetrators have already already blown up several subway stations, and much of the downtown area, including part of City Hall." The slideshow showed pictures of the destruction in the city. "They started yesterday evening."

"Is it aliens again?" Clint asked. "Loki?"

"It doesn't seem like it." Fury shook his head. "But they left a message."

The slideshow changed to a picture of wall that had been graffitied on. It was a message written in Arabic, followed by a strange symbol. Emma immediately stood up at the sight of it.

"Friedman, is there something wrong?" Fury cocked a brow in her direction. Emma could feel her hands shaking as she stared at the screen. Steve worriedly tugged on her arm to get her to sit down.

"Yes, there's something wrong." She remained standing. "Because I know who we're dealing with."

All eyes focused on her. "That message is in Arabic. It says 'We will take this city.' And that is the symbol of the most feared terrorist group in Israel, The Black Devils..."

"Now that's just unoriginal. It sounds more like a motorcycle gang," Tony complained.

"I know right?" Emma agreed with him. "They were the group involved in the Jerusalem bombs."

"Weren't spies involved?" Bruce asked.

"That was to protect the public." Emma sat back down. "If the people of Israel knew it was the BD who planted those bombs, there'd be chaos."

"Wait, what bombs?" Steve asked. He was the only one out of the loop, it seemed. Emma looked at Fury, who nodded for her to explain.

"I used to do interrogations. About over a month ago a few bombs went off south of Jerusalem. People were in a panic." Emma took a deep breath, remembering. "One of the perpetrators was caught. He was a young kid from the BD, brought in for questioning. He refused to say what the BD were up to. I asked to have a minute with him to see if I could get anything out of him. That's what I said, but obviously I read his mind and that's how I found out they had planted bombs all over Jerusalem and their locations."

"Do you think they're targeting you?" Fury asked. Emma shrugged.

"I don't know..." Emma's hand was shaking, hiding it under the table. "The goal for most Palestinian terrorist groups is to take Israel back from the Jews. But the BD's focus is another thing entirely. They want power by destroying things and scaring people, and they've trickled in from Europe, settling in Israel for the past 20 years now. They're not just Palestinians, they're made up of all sorts. If they're here in New York…" She trailed off; she felt Steve's hand hold hers from under the table.

"Then what?" Fury asked impatiently.

"Then we're screwed." Emma sat up straighter. "They're probably still planting bombs all around the city. They love their bombs."

Fury groaned, running a hand over his bald head. "Suit up, all of you. I need you to scour the city for bombs, and for any suspicious looking people." Everyone got up and out of the room immediately. Emma walked out with Steve holding hands. She saw Natasha gesture for her to come with her.

She smiled at Steve and gave his hand one last squeeze before following Natasha to the female locker room.

"Here, this ones for you." Emma caught a bundle of fabric in her hands, holding it out in front of her. It was a regular black catsuit, much like Natasha's. Emma went behind one of the shower curtains and changed into it. It was so tight it felt like a second skin, hugging her in all the right places.

"You'll also be needing these." Emma stepped out behind the curtain, only to catch two handguns that were thrown at her.

"You have good reflexes," Natasha noted.

"Thanks." Emma checked if the cartridges were full in both guns, before feeling the familiar weight in her hands. "God, it feels good holding these again." She strapped the guns to her hips before following Natasha out.

* * *

"Shit, this place is a wreck," Emma mumbled, kicking some debris out of the way. She had gone with Steve to investigate one of the destroyed underground subways. Tony was in his Iron Man suit scouring from above. Natasha and Clint were off surveying the wreckage at City Hall.

"Have you found anything?" Natasha's voice crackled in Emma's ear.

"No. I'm just seeing a a lot of wreckage," Emma answered. "How about you?"

"Same here," she heard her answer back, and the line went dead.

"So this is kind of thing that you dealt with in Israel?" Steve asked offhandedly.

"Yeah. Even worse than this," Emma answered. "I once had to drive all the way to Tel Aviv to interrogate one of the BD's men. This is nothing new to me. I used to think that I was a freak with my power, but after saving a couple of lives with it? It's not so bad."

Steve smiled at her, but then stopped suddenly. "Do you hear that?"

"What?"

"It's sounds like… water running." They both looked around for the source of the noise, until their eyes settled on the stairs at the entrance of the subway. It did look like water dripping down the stairs. Emma craned her head to look up to see a figure throwing a bucket of the liquid down at them. She bent down near the liquid to smell it.

"This isn't water-"

"Get down!" Steve grabbed her by the waist, covering both of them with his shield as the gasoline ignited and fire and exploded around them. Once it became calm, Emma was the first to bolt up the stairs, Steve not far behind her. She saw the figure running down the street. She aimed to shoot at him but he turned the corner.

"Tony, did you see that?" Emma said into the earpiece.

"Yup," Tony answered, voice crackling slightly. "And I thought your butt couldn't look any better. But then you put _that_ on? _Whoo_, I am fanning myself here."

"I will strangle you," Emma growled. "I meant, did you see where that guy went?"

"Right," Tony answered. "I'm following him. He's about two blocks down."

"Thanks." Emma started running again. She jumped out of the way when a fireball headed straight at her face from out of nowhere.

"What the-" She dodged another one. She couldn't see where the fireballs were coming from. She turned around to see Steve jogging up behind her.

"You know, you are _really_ fast," he noted, although he wasn't out of breath in the least. His shield covered his face when another ball of fire came straight at him. "Where are they coming from?"

"I don't know!" Emma screamed, hiding behind a car with Steve.

"I think it's safe to say, that I think those great balls of fire are coming from the guy you were just chasing," Tony's voice crackled. "He's standing behind that building. He looks like a real crazy, alright. Now if I can just-"

"Got it," Emma said, not waiting for him to finish before she darted out from behind the car.

"Wait!" But Emma was already gone, dodging fireballs left and right with ease.

Emma had him in her sights, charging straight at him. She screamed, making him momentarily stop shooting fire, and knocked her small body straight into his. They toppled over, with Emma on top of him. She grabbed his collar and put the gun to his forehead. She was trying to get him to hold still.

"No, I will _not_ get off of you!" she screamed, hitting him in the face with her gun. "Now stop moving, you're starting to annoy me."

The man stopped moving, his eyes frantically searching Emma's face. He was pretending that he didn't understand her. _"Don't pretend to be stupid, I just read your mind. I know you're with the Black Devils,"_ she said in Hebrew. _"Adir Abrahamson."_ Emma was caught off guard for a moment when he swatted her gun away from him, rolling her over so that he was atop of her now. Emma quickly took back control by punching him in the face, and getting back on her feet.

"So, you're the little mindreader girl I've been warned about?" Adir laughed, rubbing his face with his hand. His nose was bleeding. Emma noticed he had her gun in his hand, and was aiming it at her. He was about to shoot when Steve's shield hit him straight in the head, knocking him out. Emma turned to see Steve running towards her, catching his shield as it boomeranged back to him.

"You ok?" he asked. Emma nodded.

"Shit, Sarge. You know how to put up a fight," they heard Tony crackling in both their ear pieces. " And you're fast. Like a rocket."

"I have to be," Emma smiled. "Because I'm small."

"That's it!" Tony cried.

"What's it?" Steve asked.

"That's her name. Her codename," Tony chuckled. "The Rocket. Sarge is the Rocket."

Emma groaned, Steve chuckled along with Tony. "The Rocket. It fits."

"Can't say I'm much of a fan." The three of them were too busy arguing over Emma's codename that they didn't notice that Adir had woken up. A bullet zoomed past Emma's head. Blood started trickling down her face and neck and she realized that the bullet had grazed her temple. Another went straight through her side. She screamed, falling to her knees, holding her hand to her side.

"Emma!" Steve came over to cover her with his body.

"Don't worry, I got this," Tony said. He floated down behind Adir, tapping him on the shoulder. He spun around, shocked to see Iron Man in front of him. "Hey there," Tony promptly punched him in the face, knocking him out for real this time.

The blood refused to stop, Emma was breathing heavily. Steve laid her down, pressing his hands to her side to try and stop the blood."You're going to be ok. Stay with me, Em. Tony, get over here!" Steve ordered. Emma's eyes closed, the last thing she remembered was everything going black.

* * *

Emma's eyes shot open, trying to sit up only to be pushed back down. Steve was hovering over her, hands gently holding her shoulders down. When he saw that she wouldn't do anything, he took his hands away. Emma touched her hand tenderly to the gauze on her temple, she winced.

"You had me worried..." Steve had sat down, taking her hand away from her head and holding it in his own, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.

"The Rocket will never go down without a fight," Emma smiled, using her codename for the first time. "Where am I?" She looked around the room, it looked like a standard hospital room; an IV was hooked to her arm.

"SHIELD's medical ward. You've been out for two days," Steve said, looking down at their hands. "You lost a bit of blood, and you were pretty dehydrated. You started convulsing as soon as you passed out."

Emma furrowed her eyebrows. "I'm sorry."

"You should be," Steve said. Emma sat up successfully this time, taking her hand out of his grasp to touch his cheek. He looked at her curiously, a blush painting his cheeks. Emma stared at him before leaning in, planting her lips to his for a moment before trying to pull away. Steve caught the back of her neck with his hand, pulling her back to him so that their lips met again. Neither of them were experts at this, but they found a comfortable position. Emma saw couples kissing in movies, and in public and she never thought that she'd like doing it herself. But sitting there, and kissing Steve, she found that she actually liked it a lot. She had her hands on each side of his face and Steve had one hand behind her neck and the other rested on her waist. Emma moved one hand to run through Steve's hair.

"Ahem," They pulled away from each other, both blushing furiously. Their visitor being Tony Stark, who was leaning against the doorframe with a smirk upon his lips. "I'm sorry to interrupt the love fest, but your father's here, Sarge."

* * *

**I just want to thank my sister for helping me come up with Emma's codename. Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	10. Family

**Fun fact: I write these chapters while watching supernatural. I just got hooked and now I can't stop, it's like a disease. Anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma (and her family).**

* * *

"My father?" Emma's eyes widened. "Oh shit, shit, shit, shit," She hid herself under the covers. Steve looked at her in confusion before looking at Tony. "Why is he here? How did he find out?"

"He just showed up at the tower out of nowhere, _commanding _me to take him to you." Tony stopped leaning on the doorframe. "Your old man's not exactly a pushover, what else could I do?" Emma whimpered audibly from under the covers.

"May I come in now?" An unfamiliar voice asked from out of view. Tony, actually looking _nervous_, stepped aside. A man that Steve assumed to be Emma's father walked into the room. He stood, trying to hide the surprise on his features. Her father was just as muscular as Steve, and even stood a few inches taller than him, with identical grey eyes and black hair that was greying at the temples. Steve had now understood why Tony looked so nervous.

"Steve Rogers," Steve introduced himself, putting his hand out. "Pleased to meet you sir,"

"Edgar Friedman," Emma's father shook Steve's hand. Unlike his daughter, he had a heavy French accent which made Steve strain his ears to try and understand him. "May I speak with my daughter, privately?"

"Of course." Steve walked out of the room, looking back to see that Emma had uncovered half of her face, pleading with wide eyes for him not to go. Steve smiled sadly at her before shutting the door behind him.

"How the hell did that tiny thing," Tony pointed to Emma's tiny frame notably shaking in the bed, "come from _that?" _

Steve shrugged, wincing as he heard the father-daughter pair start arguing loudly in French on the other side of the door.

_"What happened?" _Edgar reached a hand out to touch Emma's temple, but she swatted his hand away.

_"I got shot," _Emma huffed. _"I've gotten shot before, papa. It's not a big deal."_

_"You need to stop this, Emmy." _

_"Don't." _Emma snapped. _"How did you even know I was here?"_

_"You know your sister can't keep anything a secret," _Emma frowned.

_"Ok, so now you know." _Emma started scratching at the tape that held the needle in her arm in place. _"I'm part of the Avengers, they know about my power and they want to utilize it and for once in my life I don't feel like such a freak."_

_"You're not a freak," _Edgar's hand reached out to stop Emma from scratching her arm. _"I don't think you should be a soldier anymore."_

_"This is what I want. The Black Devils are here, they're trying to take over the city. I caught one of them and-"_

_"The Black Devils are here?" _

_"Yes! Of all the times you decide to show up, you had to come now? You have to go back to Israel, the BD are planting bombs all over the place-"_

_"You're coming home with me," _Edgar interrupted her again, standing up and walking to the door in a demonstration of his final words. Emma's jaw dropped. _"I will not have you getting hurt again. You should have stopped when you got shot in the shoulder."_

_"You're not listening to me!" _Emma screamed. _"It's not safe here, you need to leave."_

_"I will leave, and you're coming with me." _Edgar said. _"This kind of thing isn't for a little girl like you." _

_"I am not coming back with you. I am not a little girl!" _Emma felt tears prickling down her cheeks. Her hand reached for the vase of flowers on the nightstand and threw it at him. Edgar dodged out of the way, the vase hitting the wall behind him and shattering, water and glass dripped and fell to the floor. _"Get out!" _

_"_Woah!" Tony cried from behind the door. He and Steve immediately stormed into the room.

_"I am your father. I will not be treated in that way!" _he screamed, red in the face.

_"Shut up!" _Emma felt the first tears start dripping down her face, hiding her face in her hands. She felt Steve put his hands on her shoulders.

"I think you should leave now, sir." Emma heard Steve say but didn't bother looking up.

"Emmy-"

"Just go." Emma said choking back a sob.

She heard her father walk out of the room and close the door behind him.

"Aw, I got you those flowers. And that vase." Tony pouted.

"Sorry," Emma mumbled, looking up and wiping the tears from her eyes. Steve had now sat down on the bed beside her. "I feel like I'm on daytime television. Too much drama. I love him, but once he decides something it's almost impossible to get him to change his mind."

"Out of curiosity, what does Papa Friedman do?" Tony asked.

"He's a mathematics professor," Tony and Steve raised their eyebrows at her. "Before that, he was a professional boxer back in France."

"Well, that explains a lot." Tony muttered. "I'm going to go back to the Tower now before your old man decides to rip my head off." And with that Tony was out of the room.

"You ok?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. I have to find a way for my dad to get back to Israel…by himself." Emma sighed, leaning back against the pillows. "My sister is a giant bigmouth, I'm going to kill her."

Steve smiled at her, getting up to give her a peck on the forehead before leaving. "Get some rest."

* * *

Steve found Edgar sitting alone in the cafeteria sipping some coffee. He walked over to the older man, feeling a tad bit nervous for two specific reasons-one: this is the father of the girl he liked, and two: the man was a giant.

"You mind if I sit here, sir?" Steve asked. Edgar looked up, cocking an eyebrow but shook his head. Steve sat down, suddenly not sure of what to say.

"That girl is so much like her mother. God rest her soul. Strong-willed, brave, refuses to give up once she sets her mind on it," Edgar ran a hand over his eyes. Steve was confused for a moment before he figured out that he was talking about Emma. "She was never like that, my Emmy. But she used to be so shy and timid. She was self-conscious about her power but we made sure that we loved her. Then my wife died, and something changed in her. She changed, and I'm not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing."

"It's good." Steve said confidently. Edgar looked at him in surprise. "Your daughter is amazing. She's swell, and one-of-a-kind."

"You care for her, don't you?" Steve nearly choked."I saw how you were with her, the way you looked at her. That was how I looked at my Claudette."

"Yes, sir." Steve sat up straighter. Was he really that obvious? He couldn't help the blush forming on his cheeks. "I care deeply for your daughter, and I would never hurt her."

"Your better not," Edgar smirked, taking a sip of his coffee. "Or I'll hurt you."

Steve gulped, meeting the family sure was terrifying.

* * *

**oh shit, papa Friedman doesn't mess around. Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	11. Answers

__**Hello all! Glad you're still with me. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers-I need to become more creative with this. You know I don't own the Avengers, but if I did...you don't want to know what I'd do if I owned the Avengers. I only own Emma. **

* * *

_"What happened?" Claudette shouts at the sight of her two children. Emma is six, Sophia is nine, just home from school, both covered in mud and bruises. Edgar, home early, walks in from the kitchen to see his wife fussing over their daughters._

_"Emmy was being bullied again!," Sophia shouts over Emma's crying. Claudette brushes a stray red hair behind her ear, picking her youngest up into her arms to shush her. Emma is screaming as though she had been shot. Claudette notices the several cuts on her legs that are still fresh and bleeding. Claudette continues her sibilant tries at calming the child down. She takes Sophia by the hand, leading them both to the bathroom to wash up._

_They have known since Emma started talking that she could read minds, and the onslaught of people's thoughts makes her head hurt, so she only cries harder._

_Emma is twelve and curled up against her dying mother in the hospital bed. Claudette looks like the ghost of herself, thin and fragile. She has her arm around her daughter, holding her close. Emma had fallen asleep while crying. Sophia sits in a chair by the bed, reading a book. Raymonde, Edgar's eldest from his previous marriage, had taken their father home earlier. He finds out that Raymonde's twin brother Lucas had died the week before. She holds her father close for the rest of that night as he breaks down. The news never comes up again._

_Family members come and go through the hospital room, saying their respects and goodbyes to Claudette as she continues to waste away. Claudette's sister Daphné never shows up, too busy traveling the world to come and visit her own dying sister. She sends a postcard from Dubai shortly after she dies. Edgar learns to forgive Daphné'. Emma and Sophia never do._

_"You can't keep coming home like this, Emmy," Edgar scolds. Emma is thirteen now, hair notably shorter with red streaks through it. She has come home from school, uniform covered in dirt. Her body covered in cuts and bruises, some still healing._

_"I couldn't help it." She runs a hand through her hair. "The boys were bullying Lili again. I had to beat them up."_

_Edgar's brow furrows in concern as he watches his daughter stamp up the stairs. Sophia is dating boys and Emma is fighting them. He doesn't know which is worse._

_Emma's hair no longer has red streaks through it at fifteen. Edgar has decided to take her and Sophia on a family trip to the Italian countryside to visit his sister Dorothy (his mother had been a big fan of the Wizard of Oz). Edgar rolls his eyes when he finds out that Emma had beaten up her male cousins. They were thinking rude things about her. Sophia is off with some boy she met. Edgar still doesn't know which is worse._

_Edgar sits by Emma's bedside in the hospital. She had only been in the IDF for a week and she had already gotten shot. It was a worry that Edgar still has with Sophia, and now Emma. But he smiles when he remembers being told that she punched her shooter in the face. It was so like her. Emma is 18, hair now in its infamous cropped form. She has two out of the four tattoos that she will have. Edgar already didn't approve of the fact that she had chopped off all of her hair. But when Emma's shirt just slightly rode up to show the bottom of her compass tattoo, well, it was safe to say that he had a massive fit._

_He knows that he has no right to control her anymore. She's not a little girl. But she will always be his little girl._

Edgar is startled from sleep, tears running down his cheeks.

* * *

Steve finds Emma dressed, ready to leave the medic ward.

"You shouldn't be up yet," he says. Emma groans in pain as if answering him, gripping her side but she tries to hide her discomfort.

"The BD aren't going to stop trying to take over the city from the ground up while I'm sitting here doing nothing." She walks out of the room, Steve trailing behind her. "I am going to send my father home, save the city and then go home and watch The IT Crowd when this is all over. Where is my father?"

"Tony sent him back to the tower," Steve said, following behind her. "He insisted on staying here with you, but we couldn't risk Fury finding out that he's here."

Emma nodded. "Hey. Is that guy we caught, Adir, still in questioning?"

"Yeah. But he refuses to talk," Steve said. "I heard Fury sent Miss Romanov to beat the answers out of him, but he still won't budge."

"Why couldn't he just go to me?" Emma asked. "I've done interrogations for two years. I can easily read his mind."

"He think it's too personal."

"Personal? Bullshit." Emma frowned. "Take me to his office."

* * *

"No." The Director didn't even lift his eye up to know who it was that entered the room.

"You don't even know what I'm going to say!" Emma protested, Steve stood outside the door, ready to intervene if anything got out of hand. Fury finally looked up at her, closing the file that he had been reading.

"What are you even doing out of bed, Friedman?" Emma stiffened.

"I can get a lot of answers out of him." Emma marched over to his desk, slamming her fists on the mahogany wood. "I can read his mind. I can… see his memories."

"You can what?" Emma gulped, she had just taken a major risk in saying that. She had no control whatsoever in her power yet, but if it could convince Fury…

"Yeah. Bruc-Dr. Banner has been trying to train me to control it," Emma said, taking her hands off the desk. Fury leaned forward on his elbows. "My power seems to be 'evolving,' one touch, and I can see and feel his memories."

"And you haven't told me this earlier because…?"

"I couldn't control it before." She still couldn't, but he didn't need to know that.

Fury groaned. "Fine. Follow me." Fury stood and walked out of the room, Steve and Emma following right behind him.

"What do you think you're doing?" Steve whispered harshly, taking her hand and yanking her to the side."You know you can't control your power yet."

Emma's eyes flashed white suddenly at the contact, then back to normal. "Yeah, and you were an adorable baby. What's your point? I'll figure it out. Don't worry." She smiled at his blush. "You had such chubby little cheeks, I wanted to pinch them. I still want to pinch them."

Emma's hand reached up to do just that, but her arm only reached up to his shoulder. Steve smiled, swatting her hand away playfully.

"Are you two going to follow me or not?" Fury called, both soldiers followed after him.

* * *

"Holy shit," Emma said looking through the one-sided mirror to see a bloodied and bruised Adir. "Nice job, Natasha. Although I'm surprised he hasn't thrown a few fireballs at you."

"Oh, he has." Natasha held her hand up, which was covered in a second degree burn.

"Oh. You should… put some ice on that." Natasha shrugged.

"Are we done chit-chatting?" Fury asked everyone in the room. "Get in there, Friedman."

Emma walked into the small interrogation room, her expression blank. She noticed that both of Adir's hands were handcuffed to the chair, covered in wet clothes. He was eyeing her warily as she sat down across from him.

"Hello again," she greeted, which was rewarded by Adir spitting in her face. Emma sighed, and wiped the saliva off with her hand. "Nice. Adir Abrahamsson; Jewish name. You were born in Israel, like me. I got all that when I read your mind last time. Now tell me, what's a guy like you doing with the BD anyway?"

"Why are you asking, you can just read my mind," he spat at her. Emma raised a brow.

"I was trying to hold off on that," she stood, coming over to his side. "But you don't seem to give me much of a choice."

"What are you doing? Wait-!" Emma laid a hand on his shoulder. She didn't know what happened but everything faded into black and she was suddenly standing in another room.

"I did it? I did it!" It was too early to be celebrating just yet when a pair of men walked into the room, one of them a teenaged version of Adir, dragging a woman kicking and screaming. They inject her with something and the woman's. The scenes changes.

Emma sees the same woman curled up and sleeping in a bed, belly large. She's pregnant. Emma sees Adir standing over her, placing a hand over her swollen stomach.

The scene suddenly changes again and she sees a little boy being trained to control fire.

Emma is yanked out of Adir's memories as suddenly as she had gone into them. She quickly snatches her hands away from Adir, who looks pale. Possibly from seeing Emma's eyes change color.

"Your eyes-" He starts panicking. Emma slaps him in the face to stop him from having a fit. She leans in close to him.

"I just saw your memories, that's what happened. So if you lie to me, you're going to get something more painful than a slap to the face," Emma whispers to him. She hopes she has enough time before Fury drags her out and demands some answers out of her. "I saw a woman, who was that woman? You injected her with something. Tell me if I'm wrong, was that the botched super soldier serum?"

"I don't know what-"

"Answer the damn question!"

"Yes!" Emma nodded. Adir's eyes suddenly took on a dark glint to them. "I kidnapped that woman, and I injected the super soldier serum into her. I raped her but the child died. They did the same thing to my mother. The BD have been trying to create children with abilities for years."

Emma recoiled from him. "Like me. How many of you are there?"

"I don't know. A dozen. Two dozen. Most died in childbirth anyway."

"Thank you." Emma walked out of the room, not wanting to be in there for another second.

"You actually got something out of him," Natasha said, looking impressed.

"You weren't kidding when you said you used to do interrogations," Steve said. Emma snorted.

"Why would I kid?"

"What did you find out?" Fury said impatiently. Emma took a deep breath and told him what she had already known from Bruce about the attempts to recreate the super soldier serum, before telling them what she found out from Adir.

"So the Black Devils took the botched serum and tried to make more 'super babies'?" Fury asked.

"They were raping the women they trafficked. He says most didn't survive." Emma looked back at Adir. "He was one of the successful products…"

"Don't pity him, Friedman," Fury snapped at her. "He knows what's he's doing."

Fury walked out of the room, satisfied with the answers that he got. Emma turned to Steve. "I should probably go to the Tower and apologize to my dad for my disrespectful behavior yesterday. God, I acted like such a little brat." She made a sour face. "What if he doesn't forgive me?"

"He will. He's your father." Steve shuddered suddenly at the memory of talking to him.

"What was that shudder? Did you talk to him?" Emma asked. Steve nodded. "Yeah, he gets that reaction from a lot of people. It's the face, I think, he can look kind of mean without meaning to."

"I don't think it's just the face…"

"Guys, shut up," Natasha said, trying to listen into the earpiece in her ear. Her eyes widened. "That was from Clint. He says part of Stark Tower just got blown up."

"What?" Emma had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"He said Tony got your father out, but he's not doing so well."

* * *

**The plot thickens. Will he live? Will he die? I ain't telling you, that's the point of cliffhangers. STAY TUNED.**


	12. Sisters

**Just posting this quickly because I have to get back to helping my sister cook dinner. I'm still reeling from all the Marvel news from comic-con! Also, forgot to mention this last chapter but I fixed up bits of chapter 10 so feel free to re-read it if you want. **

**Disclaimer: As always, I don't own The Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma (and my family).**

* * *

Emma backed herself up against the wall and started hyperventilating. Steve held her by the shoulders because she looked as though she was going to collapse at any minute. She suddenly looked pale, and she could feel the bile starting to come up her throat.

"Oh God." Steve's hand went from her shoulder to her waist as she started sliding down the wall, putting her head in-between her knees like her mother had taught her to do whenever she felt sick.

"Breathe. Just breathe," Steve said soothingly, crouching down next to her to rub her back.

"Oh God, this is all my fault." She breathed shakily. "Oh God. oh God."

"Nothing is your fault. He's going to be fine." Steve looked at Natasha, who was looking slightly uncomfortable at the public emotional display. "Did Clint say where Stark took him?"

"Yeah. Lennox Hill hospital," the Russian assassin answered. "Why was her father in the Tower anyway?"

"Long story," Steve answered, continuing his attempt at preventing Emma from having a panic attack.

"Take me there." Emma picked her head up, her side stung in response. Her hand gripped it in pain.

"Are you sure? You're technically supposed to still be in the hospital yourself," Steve asked worriedly.

"Yes, I'm sure." Emma hauled herself up, heaving a deep breath. "And hopefully I won't vomit all over you."

* * *

"I was down in the lab with Banner. The old man was up on the 75th floor where I put him and then suddenly the building shook," Tony explained, sitting in the hospital waiting room with Steve and Emma, who had a dead look in her eyes. Edgar was in critical condition in the ICU. Emma was told that she couldn't see him right now, and it was killing her inside. Tony could see it, and he tried not to let it show that it was hurting him too. Emma had grown on him. "The bomb blew through the 75th and 76th floors. I'm sorry, Sarge. He was right in the middle of it."

Emma was leaning against Steve, who held her close, not really listening to a word that Tony was saying.

"I called your sister," Tony spoke up.

"You what?" Emma looked at Tony as if she was just noticing him for the first time.

"I felt like she needed to know something like this."

"Our father might be dying, Tony!" Emma's was about to get up but Steve's hand rested on her shoulder as an attempt to calm her down. Emma settled back in her seat. "That's not news that I need to be worrying Sophia about. But as long as she's in Israel-"

"Yeah, about that…"

"What?"

"I've sent a private jet to pick her up," Tony said innocently, with wide eyes. "She's on her way."

It was a surprise that Emma didn't get any angrier because she already had her head between her knees at this point, mumbling incoherently.

Steve sighed exasperatedly, giving a Tony a stern look. Tony put his hands up in defense.

"Mama," Emma picked up her head to look at the ceiling. "Give me strength to not punch Tony in the face, please."

"You wouldn't dare punch my pretty face." Tony grinned.

Tony left soon after to check up on the damage done to the Tower, but promised that he'd be back with Sophia. Emma groaned. She missed her sister, but she would rather not be reunited with her under these circumstances. She looked at Steve, noticing that he still has his arm wrapped around her. He's deep in thought, finally looking at her when she pokes him in the cheek.

"Hm?" He seems dazed.

"What's on your mind?" she asked.

Steve shakes his head. "Nothing. It's…nothing."

"Don't make me read your mind," Emma shifted in her seat, sitting cross legged. "Tell me."

"It's just… you joined SHIELD to help people, of your own free will. But now your family has gotten mixed up in all this. And you just…" He paused. "You look so upset, and I want to make you feel better. I want to see you smile. I hate seeing you like this. But I'm just so terrible with women and-" He stopped when Emma snaked a hand behind his neck, bringing him close to her so that she could plant a soft kiss to his lips before he started rambling. She pulled away, almost laughing at the baffled and shy expression on his face.

"And you think I'm so great with men? I've spent more time getting into fights with them." She heaves a sigh. "Like my father. This is karma for me throwing that vase at him."

"He's going to be fine," Steve said, lips still tingling from the kiss. He leaned over to give her a peck on the lips. "Try to get some sleep."

* * *

Emma ended up dozing off in an awkward position with her head on Steve's lap, making the poor man not know what to do with his hands for a while. He finally decided to lay one hand on her arm and the other on her head. He absentmindedly ran a hand through her short locks, surprised at how soft her hair was. He sat back, falling asleep with his hand still in Emma's hair.

It was early in the morning when Tony was walking back into the hospital, Sophia in tow. He had greeted her when the private jet landed, immediately making a lewd comment about Sophia's large chest and bottom and how the genetics in the Friedman family were amazing. This earned him a smile and a slap in the face.

"It's true what they say about you," Sophia said, shaking his hand while Tony was still reeling from the slap.

Tony was now shaking Steve awake, who still had Emma sleeping on his lap. "Wakey, wakey, lover boy." Steve stirred, noticing that Emma was still sleeping and woke her up as well. He could already feel his face burning up.

"Mmm." She woke, hair sticking up in every which way, thanks to Steve. Before Tony could bother telling her that Sophia had now arrived, she saw her herself, standing off to the side and smiling at the whole display. "Sophie?" Sophia walked over, embracing her younger sister who had stood up, shushing her as she started rambling and sobbing into her shoulder.

"_It's ok, sweetheart. I'm here. I'm here now."_ Sophia rubbed a soothing hand up and down Emma's back. "_Everything's going to be ok. It's ok. Sssh."_

Tony gestured for Steve to leave with him to give the sisters some privacy and space. Steve looked back hesitantly before walking out of the waiting room.

* * *

Emma was leaning against her sister, who was running a hand through her hair, making it stick up even more from static electricity. They sat in silence for a while, simply enjoying each other's company.

"_You couldn't just keep your mouth shut, could you_?" Emma sighed, Sophia sighed along with her.

"_He bullied it out of me. I went to the house to cook him dinner and he just knew that I knew something._" Sophia rested her head on the top of her sister's head, static-y hair tickling her cheek. "_I didn't think he'd come here. I did not want this to happen. I'm so sorry, Emma._"

"_No. It's Tony's fault._" Emma went quiet. "_Papa came here to take me back with him. He doesn't think I should be doing this anymore. Is he even proud of me, Sophie? All these years, is that what he's been thinking this whole time?"_

"_Don't you dare say that. He's so proud of you. You just have to understand_," Sophia shifted so that now she was looking Emma in the face. "_Papa has lost so much; his parents, his wife, his son. He doesn't want to lose you too. He just doesn't want you to be so reckless."_

"_And now he might be dying. And it's all my fault. Last time we talked, we got into a fight and I threw a vase at him. This is karma."_

"_Ssh," Sophia said. "He is not going to die, our father is much stronger than that. Where do you think we get that strength from?"_

_"I hope you're right."_

"_I know I'm right._" Sophia smiled, suddenly bringing her left hand up into view. "_It's probably a bad time to tell you that Tristan proposed right before I got on the plane here."_

Before Emma could respond, Steve and Tony walked back into the room.

"Fury wants us to suit up. He says they've located the Black Devil's base."

* * *

**Expect some action next chapter! Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	13. Invade

**This chapter gave me a bit of trouble, but I hope you like it! Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma.**

* * *

Emma ran through the halls, blood dripping down her leg from where she'd been shot. She'd lost sight of Steve and Tony in the fight, and now she was running blind. She hid behind a random crate, taking her mask off to bind around her wound and stop the bleeding.

"Can anyone hear me?" she said into her earpiece, but all she got was static. Somehow all connections got cut off. Emma groaned, leaning back against the crate to catch her breath. She heard footsteps approaching; her hand fumbled for the gun that she had lain on the ground beside her. Her leg continued it's dull throb, it hurt too much to stand. She tried to peek behind the crate but couldn't see who it was. Emma waited for the footsteps to get closer before she swiveled around to point the gun at her target.

"Wait! Wait! It's me!"

"Steve?" Emma lowered the gun down as Steve crouched down in front of her.

"You've been shot, and you don't look too good either." Emma tried to sit up straighter as Steve fussed over her.

"Help me up." Steve hauled Emma up from under the armpits, still holding her to make sure that she didn't collapse.

"I'm fine. I'm fine." The bleeding had stopped for now, but her leg still continued to throb incessantly. She got out of Steve's grip, but he still continued to hover over her. "You know where Tony is?"

"No. Communications got shut down somehow. All I'm getting is static," Steve said.

"So am I."

"_Stop right there!_" The two of them stiffened, shooting a look at each other. "_Turn around, and put your hands up in the air._"

Emma softly translated what was said to Steve, and they did as they were told, slowly turning around with their hands up. The person ordering them was a woman of Arabic descent. She was only a bit taller than Emma, and was pointing a gun at them. "_Put your weapons down_."

"_Do you speak English_?" Emma asked in Arabic. The woman narrowed her eyes. "_My friend here doesn't understand_."

"Yes," The woman answered. "Now put your weapons down!"

"Alright, take it easy ma'am," Steve said, slowly putting his shield down on the ground. Emma did the same with her guns, slinging the one she had acquired off of her back and onto the ground.

Go back five hours earlier and Emma is back at the conference table in SHIELD.

"Agent Romanov here got the Black Devil base location out of Abrahamsson," Fury explained. "Right before he set himself on fire."

Emma shifted in her seat uncomfortably, the information shouldn't have bothered her. But it did. Maybe it was because she and Adir had shared a similar story.

"The base is located at an abandoned pharmaceutical company about 50 miles from here. They have been trying to create an improved version of the failed serum that gave Friedman and Abrahamsson their powers." Fury sighed, leaning over the conference table. "They want to inject it into their own men. The BD are becoming more than an underground gang."

"They're trying to take over the world?" Clint asked.

"Like Pinky and the Brain," Tony said, propping his feet up on the desk.

"Shut it, Stark. And put your damn feet down," Fury snapped at him. Tony still had his feet up. "Basically, yes. You're all leaving in half an hour. Suit up."

Emma changed into a new leather catsuit, considering that the last one she wore had a bullet hole through it. Twenty minutes, she had time to grab a quick coffee to calm her nerves. But Tony stopped her outside of the women's locker room.

"How long have you been standing out here?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Long enough." Tony grinned. He was wearing his Iron Man suit already, but he held his headpiece in his hands. Emma cocked her head to the side, raising a brow.

"I'm going to go grab a coffee, so-" She walked around him.

"Sarge, wait." Emma spun around, a piece of fabric was put into her hand.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A mask. Thought it might come in handy, considering the guys in the motorcycle gang probably know what you look like." Emma wrapped the mask around her eyes, tying it tightly in the back. "Hey, you look like Zoro. Maybe that should be your name."

"I think I've warmed up to Rocket. Besides, I'm no good with swords." Emma thinks the mask is kind of useless and out there, considering that Natasha and Clint don't wear them. Why should she? But hours later, she's going to be thanking Tony for it.

Fast forward to when Emma's in the base, walking down the winding hallways. It reminds her vaguely of the SHIELD base. Natasha and Clint had gone off on their own separate ways, leaving Emma with Tony and Steve. They turn a corner and see who they assume to be a guard holding a machine gun, quickly hiding behind the corner again. But it's too late, he's already seen them.

"Now what?" Steve whispers.

"I've got it." Emma jumps out from behind the corner, running straight towards the guard. He shoots, but misses. She's too fast. Emma shoots him cleanly in the head, and he falls to the ground, dead.

"Are you crazy?" Steve reprimands. "You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"Are you kidding? That was pretty badass, good job, Rocket." Tony was smiling under his helmet.

"But I didn't." Emma reaches down, taking the fallen guards machine gun and slings it over her head so that it's resting comfortably on her back. "The gunshots attracted attention. I hear more people coming." The three of them hide behind some storage crates as the voices grow louder and more alarmed.

The voices are in Arabic, three men stand around their fallen comrade.

"You need to stop acting so reckless," Steve whispers to Emma. She looks at him with a cocked brow.

"I didn't get killed, Steve."

"Not this time." Steve frowns.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Emma's whisper becomes a little too loud and Tony has to shush her.

"Children, now's not the time for a lover's quarrel," Tony says, just as a bullet zooms past him. "See? Not a good time."

"They know we're here," Emma translates the yelling, the footsteps are getting closer to where they're hiding. "And they're not very happy."

"Thank you, captain obvious." Tony groans.

"I'm not a captain, Steve's the captain," Emma says, pointing to Steve, clearly not understanding the reference. Tony groans again.

"I forget that I'm in the company of an old man and an immigrant,"

"Both of you shut it," Steve whispers sharply. He turns his head and sees the barrel of a gun pointing at his face. "Uh…"

"You like Huey Lewis and the News?" Tony blurts out.

"Huh?" The gunman is confused, which gives Steve the chance to hit him with his shield. But just as he's hit, his finger accidentally pulls the trigger and bullets rain everywhere from his machine gun. Steve, Tony and Emma run out from behind the crates, trying to avoid the barrage of bullets. But they ricochet and one goes right through Emma's leg, she falls to the ground. Everything turns into chaos after that. The two other gunman start firing. Steve and Tony are too busy fighting them to notice that Emma's hurt. The third, the one hit with Steve's shield has come up to her, but before he can do anything she swings her good leg and hits him in the ankle, making him lose his balance.

Emma scrambles to her feet and runs in the other direction, ignoring the pain in her leg. Which is how she lost Tony and Steve. The gunman has gotten back up to chase her. She shoots him in the head and keeps running.

And now here she is, hands up in the air at the mercy of this unknown woman. She wasn't aware the BD recruited women now. They usually trafficked them, then again things change. She's already read the woman's mind and something registers.

"Hold it right there," Natasha has appeared from behind the woman, gun drawn and ready to shoot.

"No, Natasha, wait!" Emma screams but it's too late. Natasha shoots and the woman turns around, blasting a heavy stream of water from her hands, knocking Natasha against the wall.

"She's like me," Emma says. "She has a power!"

* * *

**I will love you forever if you left a review!**


	14. Fight

**Hey guys, I have a few ideas for a sequel. Let me know if you'd read it. I can't thank you all enough for reviewing, favoring, alerting this story. I hope you're all still with me. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma (and her affiliates).**

* * *

The woman turned back to Emma, blasting a shot of water straight at her. Emma dodged, only to slip on a puddle of water that had appeared out of nowhere right from under her. She landed on her backside and bumped her head on the floor. She sat up on her elbows, rubbing the back of her hand. The water suddenly turned into ice, encasing her legs before she could even get up. She tried bashing the ice with her fists but it was too thick.

Steve tried to come to her aid but Emma waved him off. He looked confused for a moment.

"Go! Take Tony, find the lab. Destroy it!" Emma saw that Natasha has gotten up, keeping the woman busy. Steve still stood where he was. "Just go! We'll handle her." Steve hesitantly nodded, grabbing Tony and running off.

At this point Emma thought it would've been smart to have asked Steve to get her out of the ice before she told him to run off; she could feel her legs going numb. Natasha was too busy trying to beat the other woman senseless to really help her out. She saw her trying to dodge blasts of water and ice with difficulty. Emma continued her struggle to get out of the ice, but stopped. She could see the metaphorical lightbulb floating above her head.

_'Nat!'_ Emma thought to her. She felt a headache coming on already. She and her sister used to secretly communicate like this all the time, but stopped once Emma couldn't handle the headaches.

'_Are you in my head?'_ Natasha thought back to her, voice laced with a mix of surprise and annoyance at the invasion.

'_Yes. Sorry if this is an invasion of your privacy. But I can read you that woman's next move. She's not exactly a quiet thinker-dodge!_' Natasha dodged out of the way as the woman sent a punch flying her way.

_'Thanks, kid. You should do this more often. ' _Natasha thought with a smile, grabbing the woman by the arm and flipping her over onto her back.

_'It gives me a bad headache, so you should count yourself lucky_.' Emma watched as the woman got back up.

_'She's going to throw ice at you.'_ Natasha dodged as a barrage of sharpened ice flew from the woman's hand. Natasha ran and jump kicked the woman in the face. The woman fell, which gave Natasha time to grab a piece of ice nearby and run to Emma's aid.

"How are you holding up?"

"Well, I can't feel my legs," Emma answered with a shrug. Natasha started bashing the ice with the piece she was holding. The ice around Emma's legs was cracking.

"Behind you!" Emma screamed. Natasha jumped out of the way, avoiding a blast of water. The woman's nose was bleeding from when Natasha had kicked her. She wiped the blood dripping down her chin before blasting another stream of water at the red-head, this time making her fly successfully a foot away. The woman's attention was on Emma now. She made the ice melt before grabbing Emma by the collar of her suit, hauling her to her feet.

"Who are you?" she asked.

_'Your name is Zahrah. Strange, you don't have a surname. You were born into the Black Devils and you have the power to control water,' _Emma thought to her, smirking when the woman, now known as Zahrah, pulled her hand away from her in surprise. _'And who am I? I'm the Rocket. Your worst nightmare.'_ Emma grabbed Zahrah by her own collar, head butting her hard. Zahrah stumbled back. Emma punched her in the side, remembering the boxing moves her father had taught her. She dodged the meager shots of water that Zahrah tried throwing at her. She was losing energy, and this gave Emma the advantage.

Emma punched her in the stomach. Zahrah doubled-over, vomiting on the floor before Emma grabbed her by the collar, punching her viscously in the face. Every bit of anger that Emma had been holding in was now out.

Emma didn't stop punching her until Natasha grabbed her by the waist, pulling her away from the other woman. Emma panted, looking shocked at what she had done to the other woman's face. Zahrah's face was bloody and puffed up, both of her eyes had swollen shut, she even had a few teeth missing from her mouth. She was moaning softly in pain. Her body had completely given out and fallen to the floor.

"Oh shit... "

"We'll sort out your anger issues later," Natasha says.

* * *

"Go! Take Tony, find the lab. Destroy it!" Emma screamed at Steve. He hesitated to leave her like that, but she insisted that she and Natasha could handle the situation on their own. He knew that Emma was fully capable, so he nodded and urged Tony to follow him.

"Aw, but I wanted to see the cat fight," he whined. "Wait, why does she want us to destroy a lab?"

"To find the serum that these guys are making," Steve answered, as if it were any obvious. "So that they can stop creating more super humans."

"Oh. Duh. I knew that."

"Were you even listening during the briefing?"

"Um… a little. Not really. No," Tony answered. Steve couldn't see his face, but he could guess that he was grinning from under the helmet. "I just came here to kick ass."

Steve rolled his eyes. Typical Tony. They came across more of the Black Devil's men, easily knocking them all out.

"Where's the lab?" Tony had grabbed the only one they had left conscious by the collar. His hostage started sputtering incoherently in another language. Tony gave him a good smack in the face. "I know you can understand me. Don't make me ask again."

"D-down the hall."

Tony frowned, punching his hostage in the face to knock him out. "Thanks."

* * *

Emma and Natasha found Clint. It was a good thing too because more men with guns came to attack them. They did not run into anyone else with powers, which Emma thought was a bit strange. The BD were definitely alerted of their presence, so why were they only sending their regular men to fight them?

Emma's musings were cut short as she dodged an incoming punch, grabbing the fist in her hand as she kicked the man in the crotch. He doubled over in pain. She felt someone grabbing her by the back of her collar, pulling her towards them to point a gun to her temple. The man was much taller than her, her head only reaching the middle of his chest. She read his mind, and cringed at the inappropriate thoughts in his head. But she knew better than to struggle so she stood stock still, almost relaxed.

The man holding her hostage was caught off guard at her lack of a struggle, so he lowered the hand holding the gun. This gave Emma the excuse to grab it from him, spraining around and shooting him in the head. She also shot the man she had just kicked from before.

"These guys just keep coming," Clint said after a half hour of fighting. He shot another arrow. "I'm almost out of arrows."

"Just hold on a bit longer," Natasha said, releasing another barrage of bullets at the new wave of men storming in.

The two assassins continued fighting, failing to notice that a figure had snuck up behind Emma, sticking a needle into her neck. She fainted almost right away into the figures arms. Her body was dragged out of sight.

* * *

Steve and Tony had reached the lab, but not before knocking a few scientists out. It looked just like Bruce's lab back at the Tower. The smell of cleaning products hung in the air, almost giving it a hospital-like feel. Tony began to rifle through the drawers. He looked up to see Steve looking questioningly at him.

"We can't just destroy the place without stealing some of their stuff," he answered. "We have to know how they've been trying to create this stuff."

Steve nodded, helping Tony in his search. They took research notes, as well as a few vials of what they assumed was the serum.

"I love this part." Tony raised his hand, firing several bursts which incinerated the entire laboratory. There was nothing left once Tony was through with it. The alarms that had been blaring the whole time in the background had now gotten louder due to the destruction of the lab.

The two of them ran out. Tony contacted Fury through JARVIS, informing him of the events that were going down.

"Fury wants us to head back," Tony said, once the connection was cut off.

Steve nodded, checking his earpiece to see if communications were still down. "Anyone hear me?" he asked uncertainly. There was still a bit of static, but he could hear Natasha's voice.

"Did you destroy the lab?" she asked.

"Yeah. Fury wants us back," Tony answered.

"We'll meet you back where we left you and Emma," Steve said.

"Yeah, about that." Clint said. "We lost Emma."

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed reading! Please leave a review?**


	15. Torture

**Warning: this chapter might rip your heart out.**

**Also, sorry I'm not sorry about the cliffhangers. **

**On another note, my sister has just created a fan fiction account and will be posting up her first fanfic soon. It's a A Song of Ice and Fire/Stargate SG-1 crossover. I've beta'd the first and second chapters, and I think it's really good. So if you're a fan of either of those, please go ahead and show her some love. Her username is Andromaky. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma (and her affiliates)**

* * *

"Lost her?" Steve asked, his voice rising a few pitches. "How could you possibly lose her?"

"Well, Cap, she's not exactly very big to begin with," Tony interjected.

"Shut it, Stark," Steve snapped.

"I don't know, Cap. We were too busy fighting, I thought she was with us the whole time," Clint answered through the earpiece. "We turned around and she was just gone. I'm sorry."

Steve grunted, slamming his fist into the nearby wall. "I knew I shouldn't have left her. How could I have been so stupid?"

"This isn't your fault, Captain," Natasha's voice sounded a bit insulted, considering that Emma was left in her company. "But Fury wants us to head back to base to await further orders."

"No! We can't just leave Emma. We have to find her, she's still in here somewhere," Steve pleaded.

"We have to follow orders, Captain," Tony said, placing a hand on his shoulder. Steve couldn't see it, but Tony was frowning from under his helmet. "We'll come back for her."

"Since when do you follow orders?" Steve's jaw drops, shaking the unwanted hand away.

"You heard him, Captain," Clint's voice answers. "There's not much we can do now. We'll come back for her."

Steve grinds his teeth angrily, giving in. He follows Tony in the direction where Natasha and Clint are waiting for them.

* * *

_"I'll look after Papa while you're gone," Sophia says, hugging her sister before she leaves with Tony and Steve. "Don't die on me."_

_"I won't," Emma promises, a frown is etched on her features. She's unsure if she wants to go and leave her father and sister alone at a time like this._

_"Papa will be fine. He'll be awake when you get back and you can apologize to him," Sophia reassures her. "Now go."_

Emma awakes from the dream, blinking several times to get used to the blinding lights. She has a weird taste in her mouth and her head feels like it's full of concrete. Her leg is throbbing, possibly from the bullet wound, which has reopened and is bleeding again.

"Ugh…" she groans; she is still out of it from the drug that had knocked her out earlier. She sobers up and realizes that she had been strapped down to a metal table. She tries to lift her head but realizes that her forehead had been strapped down as well.

"Don't try to struggle, it's pointless." Emma hears a voice, assuming that they're in the room with her but she can't see them. The voice is male, deep, with a thick Israeli accent like hers.

"I wasn't," Emma answers.

* * *

Bruce had moved to the lab at the SHIELD base in the meantime in order to study the research notes and vials of serum Tony had given him. Steve paces back and forth behind him.

"Steve, calm down. It's going to be fine." Bruce looks up from the research that he was looking over. "We'll find her."

"But it's already been three days." Steve puts his head in his hands. "I shouldn't have left her."

"You can't keep beating yourself up like this," Bruce answers. "It's not your fault. Emma's a strong one, she'd probably punch you for worrying over her. She's strong."

"Yeah…" Steve agrees quietly.

The doors of the lab open and Tony walks in, having just hung up his phone. "I was just on the phone with Sarge's sister. She says that their father is stable and he's been moved out of the ICU. But he hasn't woken up yet."

"That's great, but why was she calling you?" Bruce asked.

"I'm the only number she knows in this place," Tony answered. "Besides Sarge's…"

"What did you tell her about Emma?" Steve asked. Tony frowned.

"That Sarge is a bit busy at the moment." He scratched the back of his head. "She didn't seem to believe me, but she went with it. Also, she had the gall to threaten me. What is up with these Friedmans?"

"Ahem." The three men turned to look at the newcomer in the room. It was Agent Maria Hill.

"Director Fury is gathering you all for a meeting. Please, follow me."

* * *

"How long have I been out?" Emma asked.

"Three days," the man answers, still out of her view. "Well, you kept waking up. So I had to keep drugging you."

"That explains why I feel like I have a hangover." Emma chuckles, looking a bit too calm for someone in her situation.

"You shouldn't be so calm, Emmanuelle Friedman!" Emma's eyes widen when the man is suddenly screaming in her face. He had a distinct scar running down the side of his face. "You did quite a number on poor Zahrah. And Adir, the coward committed suicide. He won't be missed by me." Emma frowned. "I am also not amused at the fact that your friends destroyed my lab, but I have a feeling that they stole my work."

Emma tried her best to shrug even from under the constraints. "Good for them."

"You're just like your mother," the man mentioned suddenly. The man smirked at Emma's surprised expression. "Oh, finally got your attention, did I?"

"How did you know my mother?" she asked.

"We went to university together. We were quite good friends, her and I," he said. "Dr. Adam Herschel is my name."

"Nope, she never mentioned you." Herschel's face fell. "You said you were 'good friends'?"

"Your mother did stop speaking to me," he answered, regaining his composure. "She went soft when she met your father. A man seven years her senior, who was divorced._ Divorced_. While I was a competent scientist like her, she chose to go for a mathematics teacher."

"You had a crush on my mom?" Emma couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, that's priceless. Get over yourself. And for the record, my father used to be a champion boxer. He can probably still beat you up."

Emma stopped talking when a hand wrapped itself tightly around her throat. "Then where is your father? Huh? He's lying in a hospital bed, he nor your friends can save you." He released his hold on her once he felt that she knew that was a threat. "Your mother and I worked together in recreating the super soldier serum. And then she got married and everything fell apart. I tried to convince her to start a new project with me but as you can see, it didn't go over so well." He pointed to the scar on his face.

"Good for her," Emma said, feeling proud of her mother.

Herschel looked down at her curiously before taking a phone out of his pocket.

* * *

Fury was in his office when his phone suddenly started ringing. Only a handful of people knew his personal cell phone number. He took it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID. The number was blocked.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"You know very well who this is, Nick Fury," Herschel answered.

"How did you get this number?"

"I have my ways. Now, Mr. Fury, I want you to gather your little Avengers together for a meeting," Herschel said.

"Why should I listen to you?" Fury asked.

"Because I have your little Emmanuelle hostage. I think you'd better listen to me before I do something to her that I won't regret." Fury groaned, running a hand over his bald head. He called Maria over the intercom, telling her to gather everyone for a meeting.

"Stay on the line," Herschel said. "And put me on speaker phone when everyone is together."

Fury stood at the front of the conference table, watching as everyone filed in. Maria walked in first, followed by Tony, Steve and Bruce. Natasha and Clint came soon after. When everyone was seated, they all looked at Fury with a mix of expectation and confusion at the fact that he held a cell phone to his ear. He pushed the speakerphone button before setting the cell phone down on the table.

"You're on," Fury said.

* * *

Emma was listening in on Herschel as he spoke to Director Fury, wondering what exactly he was planning. She could hear everything that Fury was saying because he was on speakerphone, so she heard him clearly when he said "You're on." Herschel had walked out of her view again so she couldn't see what he was doing. He paused for a moment before answering, and she could imagine the Avengers waiting expectantly for him to speak.

"Hello, Avengers," he finally answered. "I am Dr. Adam Herschel. Not only do I work for the Black Devils, but I was also one of the scientists working on the serum before you imbeciles destroyed my laboratory."

"Hey! I'm not an imbecile," Emma could hear Tony protesting from the other line.

"Where's Emma?" Steve's voice asked, not really caring about who Dr. Herschel was. Emma could feel her heart do a little backflip at the sound of his voice.

"Oh, don't worry. Emma is right here," Herschel said.

"Emma!" Steve shouted. "Are you ok?"

"I'm fine, Steve," Emma's voice was muffled by Herschel's hand.

"Stop your shouting," he demanded. "If you want her back, you're going to have to listen to some of my demands."

"Why should we listen to what you have to say?" Fury asked.

"Oh, I'll give you a reason." Herschel smirked, before shouting in Hebrew to another unseen figure, who was apparently in the room with them the whole time, a large man who was holding a large hammer in his hands. Emma heard him conversing with the other man in Hebrew and her blood ran cold. She started to scream in panic. Herschel smirked as he saw her resolve crack. The ever-so-calm Emma was now scared out of her mind.

* * *

The Avengers could hear Herschel shouting something in Hebrew to another person. They all sat in confusion as they heard him conversing with this another person. They could hear Emma's panicked screams in the background.

"No! No! Please, oh my God. No, I'm begging you. Stop. I'll do anything." Emma's pleas were loud and high-pitched, it hurt everyone's ears. Bruce covered his ears with his hands.

"This won't hurt a bit, my dear," they heard Herschel say soothingly to her. A moment later they heard the loud and distinct _'crack!'_ of bone breaking over the sounds of Emma's screams. The screams then turned into sobs. Everyone in the conference room remained in stunned and shocked silence.

"Jesus Christ," Tony murmured quietly.

Steve felt like he was going to be sick, the sound of Emma crying broke his heart. He punched the table with his fist before putting his head in his hand.

"Do you want me to break your other arm?" Herschel asked, slapping her in the face to stop her crying. The slap was loud enough to hear over the speaker. "Stop your sniveling." Emma's sobs turned to ragged breathing and hiccups.

"Now you listen to my demands or I will break something worse than an arm." Herschel was now addressing the Avengers.

"What do you want?" Fury asked.

"Now, you will return my notes and let me continue my research in peace and I will give you your precious Emma back. But if you don't, I will kill her and have her family slaughtered."

"Alright." Fury sat down, suddenly feeling sick. The sounds of Emma's ragged breathing in the background echoed throughout the room.

"If I do not have my things back in 24 hours, then Emmanuelle Friedman and her family will cease to breathe," Herschel said as a final note. "Good day, gentlemen,"

There was a click as he hung up. Fury didn't move, nor did anyone else. The room remained quiet.

"We have to save her," Steve spoke up. Everyone looked up at him. "We can't let him get away with this."

* * *

Emma screamed as she saw the man approach her with the large hammer in his hands. She struggled and continued screaming. She pleaded but they went unheard as the man swung and struck her right arm with the hammer. The loud crack of bone breaking echoed around the room. Emma's screamed in pain before it dissolved into sobs.

The man put the hammer down and unstrapped her arm, it lay limply against her side, and it hurt too much to move. She continued her sobbing until Herschel slapped her in the face.

When Herschel was done with his conversation, he walked back over to her, smiling wickedly. He wiped away the stray tears running down her cheeks with his thumb.

"Now be a good girl," he said before he walked out of the room.

Emma just laid there and continued her silent crying, suddenly losing all hope.

* * *

**Review?**


	16. Breaking Out

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**Disclaimer: I do not own the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma (and her affiliates)**

* * *

Emma was moved to a different room, which looked more like a prison cell; complete with a tiny hole for doing her business in. The bleeding in her leg had stopped, and she hoped that the wound wasn't infected. She cradled her broken arm, trying not to move it much. She didn't know how long she had sat in that cell, but it couldn't have been more than a few hours. Herschel said 24 hours; she would have to wait it out. She ended up falling asleep in the small, smelly cot in the corner.

Not a half hour later, she was woken up by the door creaking open. Emma sat up, fully alert. It was a man holding a tray in his hands. He closed the door behind him.

"We don't have much time," the man said, walking over to Emma.

"An American?" Emma watched as the man set the tray down on the floor in front of her. "The BD don't recruit Americans, as far as I know."

"That's because I'm not with the BD." the man crouched down in front of her, unwrapping the mask that Emma had used as a makeshift bandage for her leg, which was now crusted with dried blood. "Eck." He threw the mask away. "Ok, this is going to sting a bit."

"What?"

Before she knew it, he was pouring alcohol all over the wound on her leg. Emma hissed loudly.

"Or a lot." The man smiled apologetically, before taking a swig of the alcohol. "Vodka. Works wonders."

"Who are you?" Emma asked. The strange man was wrapping clean gauze around her leg. He then took a metal bar and the remainder of the gauze to make a makeshift splint for her arm. Emma whimpered as he touched her arm.

"Sorry." He looked up at her. "Agent Jason Horowitz. I'm here to bust you out, Sgt. Friedman."

"Agent? You mean you're from-"

"SHIELD? Yup. Let's go." He helped her out of the cot, and they walked out of the cell.

"We're going to need weapons," he whispered to her. They passed by a few guards who looked at them curiously.

"Herschel has ordered me to escort the prisoner," Jason lied, and thankfully the guards believed him."That should hold them off until they get suspicious."

They walked down the hallways before stopping in front of a door which Jason unlocked. Emma looked around to make sure no one was coming. Once the door was opened, Jason gestured for her to follow him inside.

The room was stocked of all kinds of weapons along every wall. Guns, blades, shields, whips, blunt objects, etc.

"Are you ok with just using one hand?" Jason asked. "I can imagine it'll be hard for you to use your left hand since your right arm is broken-"

"I am left-handed," Emma corrected him absentmindedly, observing the various kinds of weapons.

"Oh," Jason said, eyeing her picking up an Uzi. "I'll have that." He ignored the glare Emma shot at him. He busied himself by taking more weapons for himself. Emma sighed, taking two handguns and strapping them to both her hips, she tucked a switchblade into her boot and a few grenades to her belt. But something caught her eye, and she walked over to it. It was the kind of weapon that Emma was not expecting to see.

A metal baseball bat.

A gleeful smile spread across the face as she picked it up.

* * *

"Shut up, everybody shut up!" Fury cried over the din in the room. The Avengers all stopped talking and sat silently, watching Fury expectantly. "We're not going to do a single thing he says."

"What are you talking about?" Steve cried angrily.

"We've got a guy on the inside. Agent Jason Horowitz. At this very moment, he's rescuing Friedman and destroying the Black Devil's from the inside." Fury ignored the glare that Steve was shooting him.

"You couldn't tell us this earlier?" Steve snapped. He was worried about Emma's well being and Fury was withholding information from them.

"This needed time, Rogers. I needed to know what the game was," Fury said. "They've given you all a head start, so suit up and get going. Agent Hill, get security over at Lennox Hill Hospital. Make sure Friedman's father and sister are safe."

Tony and Steve shot a look at each other. "You knew?" Tony asked.

"I've known this whole damn time, Stark. I wasn't born yesterday." Fury didn't seem to look angry as they were expecting. "This just makes my job a bit more difficult."

"What about Sgt. Friedman?" Clint asked. "She only has one working arm. Do you think having just one guy protecting her is enough?"

"You don't know Sarge very well," Tony said, clapping a hand on Clint's shoulder.

* * *

Jason couldn't help but shoot glances at Emma now and then as they stalked down the hall. She had grabbed the metal baseball bat, and she looked quite comical holding it in her small left hand, while her right arm was in a bad excuse of a sling.

"Hey, that's the guy," Emma said, stopping suddenly. Jason stopped behind her.

"What guy?" Jason asked.

"That's the guy who broke my arm," Emma whispered, spotting the large burly man walking away from them. She started running towards him before Jason could stop her.

"Hey, ass butt!" The man turned. He fell to his knees when Emma bashed him in the knees with the bat, meeting her at eye level. Before he could say anything, his skull met the metal bat with a satisfying crack and he fell over. Emma continued to mercilessly bash his head in, with blood spattering onto her legs and hands.

Jason couldn't help but gulp at the sight of Emma slinging excess blood off the end of the bat once she had finished bashing the guys skull in. He heard her whisper something along the lines of, "Who's not the Bear Jew now?" He would think twice before angering Emma.

"What are we standing around here for?" she asked him; he looked down and noticed that she had walked back over to him. "Let's go."

"Right. Follow me." Jason took off down the hall again. "We're going to cause some chaos."

* * *

Dr. Adam Herschel was sitting in his office in the base, looking at an old framed photograph on his desk. It was of him and Emma's mother, Claudette, taken during their first semester at University. The photo, a candid, of the two of them laughing. Emma did not inherit the red hair or the bright green eyes of her mother, but she had _her face_. When Herschel had first laid eyes on Emma's form, strapped to the metal table, for a moment he thought he was looking at Claudette again.

_Claudie and Addie_ they were so aptly named around campus.

And then she met _him._

Edgar Friedman, a recently divorced man from Paris who was seven years her senior who had started teaching mathematics at their University. Claudette was only 20 when she met Edgar, and Herschel remembers clearly when he first met him.

_"Ugh." Claudette slams a coffee covered book onto her desk, kicking it before sitting in it. She ignores the stares she gets from the few students already gathered in the classroom._

_"What's gotten you so angry this early in the morning?" Addie asks, eyeing her warily._

_"I was standing in line at the coffee shop just before I got here. Some idiot who was ordering coffee in front of me turns around and bumps right into me. And he spills coffee all over the book that I was reading. And then I told him off in my best Hebrew." Claudette had already been living in Israel for two years, but her German accent is still thick through her Hebrew. "Look at it! It's completely ruined."_

_"Only you would read a book while waiting in line." Addie smiles as Claudette hits him playfully in the arm. More students pile into the classroom, but the professor is nowhere in sight. He is already 15 minutes late to class on the first day._

_"Where is this guy?" Claudette asks, twiddling with a piece of stray hair._

_"Don't know. I heard he's new. Maybe he got lost on the campus?" Addie replies._

_"This semester is already going off to a great start," Claudette mumbles. Two minutes later, their professor comes sauntering in and Claudette's jaw drops._

_"That's him!" she whispers hurriedly. "That's the guy who bumped into me. Oh, that's just great. I told off my mathematics professor, he's going to make my life hell."_

_"Are you serious? He looks like a bodybuilder," Addie whispers back._

_"Good morning, students. I am Professor Edgar Friedman. I'm quite sorry for being late, this will be the first and last time," Edgar says, turning away from the blackboard that he had written his name and course on. Claudette hides her head in her hands, praying that she somehow becomes invisible._

_Edgar dismissed class early that first day. Claudette gets up from her desk once all of the students have filed out and approaches Edgar who is sitting at his desk. Addie stands beside her for support._

_"Um, Professor." Edgar looks up at her and his face lights up, catching Claudette off guard._

_"Ah! You're the girl from the coffee shop."_

_"Yes. Glad you remember me. But, um-"_

_"I would like to apologize. I am so sorry for spilling coffee all over your book." Claudette's mouth dropped open. "Oh yes, this is why I was late this morning."_

_Claudette and Addie watch Edgar reach into his bag and pull out the exact same book that he had ruined. He hands it to Claudette, who still has her mouth wide open in shock, smiling widely. "I managed to see what book it was you were reading, and I stopped by the bookstore to get you a new copy. Very good book, wait until you get to the end. You will be shocked."_

_"Thank you so much, Professor." Claudette turns the book over in her hands. "I must also apologize for the um… colorful words that I said to you."_

_Edgar laughs, and it's a hearty laugh. "I deserved it! Don't worry, my dear. What did you say your name was?"_

_"Claudette Baumann," she answers._

_"Claudette! That is a beautiful name." Edgar's smile cannot get any bigger, and Claudette feels her heart do a little backflip. "And you are, young man?"_

_"Adam Herschel, sir," Addie says._

And to think, they would start dating at the end of the semester, and marry the year after. Herschel is interrupted from his thoughts by the alarms sounding. Men dash into his office, alarmed looks on their faces.

"The prisoner has escaped, sir," one of them says.

"She's setting off explosives," another says.

"How could you let her escape?" Herschel screams. "She's about this tall, you can't even handle one small girl?"

* * *

Jason tapes an explosive to the wall, and they run for it. Thirty seconds later they hear the loud explosion. Emma busies herself by bashing more heads in with her baseball bat.

"You're a bit too trigger happy with that thing," Jason says, watching her shake more blood off the end of the bat.

"What?" she asks, confused by the expression.

"Never mind," he says, but then stops and listens as Fury contacts him through his earpiece. He smiles.

"What?" Emma asks.

"The Avengers are on their way."

* * *

**Thanks for reading! Don't be shy to leave a review.**

**By the way, my sister's fan fiction is now up, her username is andromaky. If you're a fan of A song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones and Stargate SG-1 then you should head on over and give 'The Winter Wars' some love! I did the beta, so I can def. say that its good.**


	17. Sickness

**I finally got this chapter up. Sorry it took so long. Hope you enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not the Avengers, Marvel does. I only own my oc Emma (and her affiliates)**

* * *

"Great." Emma exclaimed. "How long before they get here?"

"Give or take half an hour." Jason looked bewildered by her blank expression. "What?"

"Seriously?" she answers, suddenly looking tired, as though all the energy has been sucked out of her. Emma puts the bat down on the floor in order to carefully adjust her broken arm in the sling.

"You ok?" Jason asks, stepping closer to her.

"No, obviously not." Emma bends slightly forward, hand on her knee. "My arm hurts. The adrenaline's worn off."

"Oh shit, I forgot to give you painkillers. Has your arm been bothering you this whole time?" Jason asks worriedly, digging inside his jacket for the bottle of pills. "I'm so sorry. I was just in a hurry to get you out of there."

"Don't worry. I have a high tolerance for pain." Emma picks the bat up and stands back up. "Well, except for bone breaking pain. That hurt _a lot._"

Jason notices her pallid complexion so he hesitantly puts a hand to her forehead, he flinches at the heat. "Shit, you're burning up."

"I'm perfectly fine." She shakes his hand away.

"No, you're not." Jason takes her gently by her non-injured arm and pulls her over to a quiet space. Emma leans against a wall and slides down it to sit. He hands her two pills, Emma dry swallows them.

"Director Fury, sir," Jason says into his earpiece, putting a hand to Emma's forehead again. "How long before the Avengers get here? Sgt. Friedman needs immediate medical attention."

"Emma," Emma says quietly.

"What?"

"Just call me Emma," she repeats. "I'm not being very Sergeant-like right now."

Jason nods. "How long?" he repeats into his earpiece, but is unable to hear an answer because the sounds of blasts being fired and punches being thrown distracts him. He stands to see who it could be.

"Over here!" he shouts, a look of relief on his face as he sees the five Avengers coming over. Steve is in the lead, running past Jason to crouch down in front of Emma. His hands hover over her, as though afraid that if he touched her she would break. His mouth is turned down in worry as he looks at her broken arm and the dried blood splattered all over her.

"I've missed you, Steve," Emma says, and still somehow has the energy to smile. Steve smiles back, breathing a sigh of relief and carefully cups her cheek.

"She's quite the fighter," Jason praises, looking away from the intimate scene to speak to the rest of the Avengers. "Just a few minutes ago she was busy bashing heads in with that baseball bat. I'm surprised she held out for so long."

"Shit, Sarge," Tony answers, noticing the bloodied metal bat lying next to her. "Looks like you got to be the Bear Jew after all."

Emma laughs. "Told you so."

"Does your arm hurt?" Steve asks her, his gaze darting down to the sling. Emma nods.

"She's burning up, Captain," Jason informs him, suddenly a bit wary of the giant green man with a permanent angry expression on his face near him. Steve nods, gesturing for the green man to come closer. Emma notices him for the first time and backs up against the wall, her hand immediately grips itself around the bat. Even in her state, she is still ready to defend herself.

"Hey. It's ok," Steve reassures her. "It's just Bruce, he's Hulked-out."

Emma's eyes widen, looking up at the Hulk warily. His expression has changed to a gentler one, if that was even possible, to let her know that he wouldn't put her in any danger.

"Wow," Emma breathed.

"Hulk, I want you to hold Emma." Emma yelped in surprise as she felt herself being picked up by the Hulk, and then cradled comfortably in the crook of his extremely large green arm. She looked frazzled, breathing hard as she cradled the metal bat to her chest.

"Take her back to the car outside," Steve orders, taking on the role as leader. "The rest of us are going to look for that Herschel guy."

"No!" Emma cries. "I'm coming with you."

"You are in no condition-" Steve begins.

"I have to come," Emma argues, a look in her eyes that told Steve that she wasn't going to negotiate. "I have a- how do you say? A bone to pick with Herschel."

* * *

Herschel was sneering, his best men were getting cut down by a _child_ with only one working arm. No matter, he still had her family members held hostage at the hospital. He called up one of his men, but all he got was a dial tone. He threw the phone down in frustration. There was nothing he could do now, the New York Black Devil base was going to crumble to the ground and those damn Avengers will probably move on to taking down the Israel base.

His work was gone, there wasn't anything left here for him. His eyes darted back to the photograph on his desk, picking it up and staring at it sadly. He took the photograph out of its frame, tucking it into his pocket as he decided that his plan of action was to escape to Mexico under a new name.

His plan had messed up royally, and now he was choosing to run away. When did he become such a coward?

Damn Emma. Damn her mother and the feelings he ever had for her. Herschel cursed his life; he joined the BD of his own free will. He turned against his own people, and the only person to blame was himself.

The super soldier project had failed and it was shut down. He was in it to help his people, to create soldiers who were invincible. To end the Palestinian terrorist threat. To give Israel back to the Jews, once and for all.

Where did it all go wrong?

He knew where it went wrong. When he and Claudette had joined that company, straight out of University. They were both given jobs on the project. Then Claudette had Sophia and she almost quit right there.

_"You can't quit," he had told her. "Just imagine the good that we're doing for the country."_

But then it all fell apart and Claudette moved on to working with a normal pharmaceutical company. Things had gone bad between them and they stopped talking. Somewhere along the way, Herschel started to not care about the country of Israel anymore, but instead became intent on recreating that botched super soldier serum. He became manic in his work, even going so far as to join the BD in order to continue his work.

He shook himself out of his thoughts, gathering his few belongings and ran out of his office- only to be met with a punch to the face.

* * *

"How're you holding up, Sarge?" Tony asked, looking over at the small soldier being held in the Hulk's arm. Emma looks down at him through her lashes, and nods weakly.

"I still think you shouldn't be here," Steve tells her.

"I'm not going anywhere, Steve." Steve shakes his head; she still has the gall to be so stubborn.

"If it's alright to ask," Tony starts, "what happened during the three days you were missing?"

"She's in no shape to be talking right now," Jason retorts.

"Mm," Emma clears her throat. "It's fine. Uh, he had me drugged the whole time. I was asleep, but when I woke up I was strapped to a metal table. That's when he made that phone call."

Steve's mouth is set in a straight line, too angry to even speak.

"Herschel… was friends with my mother. Apparently," Emma continues.

"What?"

"Yeah. Had a huge crush on her. What a loser." Emma shuts her eyes. "My mother gave him a huge scar on his face."

"Well, I can see where the aggression comes from," Tony says.

"This is Herschel's office," Jason says, as they all stop in front of the door. The door suddenly swings open. Jason's fist connects with the older man's face before he can try and run past them. Herschel falls to the floor, blood dripping from his nose.

Steve steps forward, grabbing Herschel by the collar, ready to punch him in the face himself.

"Stop," Emma commands. "Let me talk to him."

"Is now really the time? You can interrogate-"

"I won't be able to interrogate him if I'm stuck in a hospital bed." Emma wriggles in the Hulk's grip and he gently sets her down. Emma's arm is still bothering her but she ignores the pain as she walks over to Herschel, pulling him up with her one hand to a somewhat sitting position.

"Talk," she commands. "Why aren't your people coming to help you; your guards, the people with powers. Where are they?"

"Most of them ran, the rest you killed," Herschel gasps. "The ones with the powers… they're all dead."

"What? But I thought-"

"Most died in childbirth. The ones that were able to live to adulthood, for some reason or another, got sick and died."

"So Adir and Zahrah were your last two specimens?" Emma asked. "Adir killed himself. What about Zahrah?"

"She froze herself to death. After what you did to her, she couldn't stand living anymore!" Herschel nearly shouted. "You bashed her face in."

"It's true," Natasha quips. "I could barely recognize that Zahrah woman after she was done with her."

Emma frowned at the news, ignoring everyone's shocked and appalled faces. "So you were trying to make more with the new serum."

"Yes," he answers.

"One more question," she says. "How come I can't read your mind?"

"Years of practice. I knew that one day I would cross paths with you again."

"Again?"

"Yes. The last time I saw you you were a toddler, babbling nonsense until I figured out that you were saying my thoughts." Herschel grins at Emma's shocked expression. Her mother had never told her of this. "Your mother blurted out that it was the serum she injected into herself that gave you the power. I asked her nicely if I could study you, but of course she said no."

"You perverted creep-" Emma grabs him by the collar and her eyes flash white.

_Emma found herself standing under a chuppah. She stood there confused for a moment before spotting Herschel sitting by himself in one of the seats, albeit a much younger version of him. Emma walked over to him, but stopped when she saw her mother approaching him; dressed in a long white wedding gown, her wild hair pulled back in a bun, just like in the wedding photographs that Emma admired._

_"Addie!" Claudette sits down next to him. "What are you doing over here? I've been looking all over for you."_

_"Looking… for me?" Herschel asks, genuinely surprised. "I thought you'd want to spend all your time with your new husband."_

_"But I also want to spend it with my best friend," Claudette punches him playfully in the arm, before standing up. "Now come on. Stop moping-"_

_Emma suddenly finds herself in her childhood home, in the middle of a heated argument between Claudette and Herschel. Claudette has a 2-year-old Emma clutched tightly in her arms._

_"I will not have you using my child as a test subject!" she screams._

_"Claudie, if you could just listen," Herschel pleads. "Your child has a gift-"_

_"She has a gift," Claudette interrupts him. "But she deserves to have a normal childhood, not be some lab rat."_

_"So you're going to just hide that gift away?" Herschel half-shouts, which makes Claudette back away from him, her back hits the sink. She holds Emma closer to her, who starts to cry. "She's going to grow up, along with Sophia, to be soldiers anyway. Why not make them the perfect soldiers?"_

_"Ssh, ssh," Claudette's sibilant tries at quieting her daughter down are pointless. The look she shoots at Herschel almost makes him flinch. "I will not have you prodding at my children."_

_"Claudette, please listen-"_

_"Get out of my house," she orders over the crying. "Get out!"_

_"I don't understand what the problem is," Herschel scratches his head. "You were eager to experiment on humans before."_

_"That was before," Emma's screaming is starting to give Claudette a headache. "But this is my daughter. Please leave."_

_Suddenly Herschel is on top of her, grabbing her by the wrist. Claudette tries to hold Emma with one arm but the child is heavy. But she doesn't panic, she's not easily scared by bigger men._

_"Let go, Addie."_

_"What are you going to do?" he challenges._

_"This," Claudette kicks him in the groin, causing him to let go of her wrist. She reaches for a nearby glass cup, smashing it to his face. He screams, clutching his hand to the side of his face, feeling glass and blood. Edgar comes running in, hearing all the commotion._

_"What is going on?" he demands._

_"Your crazy bitch of a wife did this to me!" Herschel screams in agony._

_"I will not have you in my house insulting my wife, and scaring my child." He grabs Herschel by the back of his collar, literally throwing him out of the house._

Emma is suddenly ripped out of the memories, and collapses to the floor. Her mind goes blank as her body starts shaking.

"Shit, she's seizing!" Tony cries. Both Tony and Steve get down on their knees beside Emma. "Cap, roll her onto her side." Steve does as he's told, keeping his hands on Emma to make sure that she doesn't hurt herself. Everyone was so preoccupied by Emma's seizure that no one had noticed that Herschel had grabbed one of the guns from her holster.

Clint notices him pointing it to his head.

"Shit, no!" But it's too late; Herschel shoots himself in the head.

* * *

**Intense, eh? Don't be shy to leave a review!**


	18. Promotions

**oh my god I am so sorry that this took so long to update! I lost motivation for a while there and I've been busy ever since school start. But I hope you forgive me and enjoy the chapter!**

**Disclaimer: The Avengers belong to Marvel, my oc Emma and her associates belongs to me**

* * *

It was only a day after Emma had gotten out of SHIELD's medical ward that she found herself sitting in the familiar conference room again. She was ordered to be on bed rest for the past week and it was a hectic one, full of family arguments and reconciles. Her father was thankfully alright after the explosion, suffering major blood loss and a few broken ribs. He and Sophia were ordered to stick around at SHIELD instead of being flown back home, much to everyone's confusion.

The week was filled with Sophia discussing wedding plans with Emma, much to Emma's chagrin. Most of the time it was spent being on the phone with her fiancé. Edgar found himself leaving the room when this discussion came up.

As it turns out Edgar bonded with Steve during that week, often times threatening him not to hurt his little girl.

Fast forward a week later and Fury decides to hold a meeting. All of the Avengers plus Sophia and Edgar were seated.

"I hope it isn't another crisis," Sophia whispers.

"If it was another crisis, he wouldn't have asked me to attend," Emma said, indicating to her arm wrapped up in a hard cast. "The real question is, why did he ask you two to join?"

Sophia and Edgar shrugged their shoulders at the same time.

Fury decided to walk in at that moment, followed by Agent Hill and another man trailing behind the both of them. The man was balding and going gray and he wore the standard IDF uniform, the badges on his suit indicated that he was a General. Emma and Sophia stood, giving a salute to the unknown man. Edgar stayed seated but found himself saluting as well.

"You know it's rude to give a left-handed salute, Emmanuelle," the man scolded in a light tone. Emma smiled apologetically and put her hand down.

"You know this guy?" Tony asked. Everyone looked back and forth between the General and the sisters curiously.

"He's our commanding officer," Sophia explained.

"Sgt. and Col. Friedman, sit down," Fury ordered and the sisters did as they were told. "May I introduce to you General Reuven Wexler of the Israel Defense Forces. You can take over from here, General."

General Wexler squeezed Fury's shoulder. "Thank you, Nick." The General stood with perfect posture, both hands behind his back, taking Emma back to her early training days. He was hers and Sophia's role model. He was the reason why they decided to continue their service.

"I'm here today because I was contacted by SHIELD letting the IDF know that the Black Devils were wreaking havoc here in New York," the General began. "I am quite relieved to know that the problem was solved and that this was where Sgt. Friedman has been this whole time. It has been a long week of negotiations but the IDF has agreed to team up with SHIELD. Nick is going to send Agents to Israel to help keep the BD and Palestinian terrorist threats in check."

"Which also means that I am now appointing Col. Friedman as an official member of SHIELD," Fury said. Sophia's eyes nearly bugged out. "You will be helping keep the threats in check in Israel."

"I think that border patrol is getting a bit boring for you, Sophia," the General said. Sophia furiously nodded her head, making him laugh.

"Yes. Yes! I'll do it. I'm a SHIELD agent," she wrapped her arms around Emma's neck, planting a kiss on her cheek. Emma's cheeks hurt from smiling.

"Alright, settle down Agent Friedman," Fury asked, which earned another squeal from the elder Friedman. Fury rolled his single eye. The room was filled with chatter and congratulations before Fury had to calm everyone down. "Which means that Sgt. Friedman will be staying here in New York, retaining her residence at Stark Tower."

Emma nodded in response.

"But I'm offering you a job," Fury continued. Emma raised a brow. "Since it says in your file that you are fluent in seven languages, I am giving you the chance to work in SHIELD's linguistics department. You can even take classes to learn new languages. You'll be paid for the extra service, as well as by the IDF."

"Yes! I'll take it!" Emma was practically bouncing in her seat. Steve, who was seated next to her, wrapped an arm around her shoulders, planting a small kiss on her temple. Sophia, on her other side, did the same.

"Oh God, I can't take all this news in one day," Tony complained, but had a smile on his face regardless.

"Shut it, Stark."

"There is just a bit more news that I must trouble you all with, "The General said. "Because of your valiant deeds in helping stop the BD threat, Emmanuelle, I am promoting you to First Sergeant." He walked over, pinning the badge to the front of her shirt. Emma was so shocked that she found herself speechless. The General took this oppurtunity to turn to Sophia. "And since you have agreed to work for both SHIELD and the IDF to help keep threats at bay, and for coming over here to take care of your sister, I feel that it is necessary to promote you, too." He pinned a badge to Sophia's shirt as well. "Brigadier General Sophia Cecelia Friedman."

It was at that moment that both Friedman's stood to hug the General.

"Congrats, Sarge! I can still call you Sarge," Tony said. The room was once again filled with shouts of congratulations. Once the din had died down, Edgar took this moment to speak up for the first time.

"But why am I here?" he asked.

"Since you're the father of these two strong and beautiful girls, I felt that it was necessary to have you here," the General explained. Sophia and Emma came over to their father, hugging and kissing him. Edgar couldn't help but feel pride and love swell up in his chest.

* * *

The General flew back to Israel that same day but Sophia and Edgar chose to stick around. But when the day finally came for the two of them to fly back to Jerusalem, Emma found herself crying like a baby.

"Stop crying," Sophia scolded, hugging her younger sister. "It's not like I'm leaving forever."

Emma hugged Sophia tighter with her good arm.

"I'll see you in December, for Chanukah, yeah?" Emma nodded. Emma let go and went to hug Edgar.

"I'm sorry about what I said," her father apologized. "You're meant to do this. You were meant to help people."

Emma looked up at Edgar. "Thank you, Papa," she smiled. She waved at them as they walked down the terminal.

Once Emma was back from the airport, she found herself bypassing her door and walking down the hall to Steve's. She knocked and the super soldier answered mere minutes later.

"Hey, Em, you're back from the airpo-" Steve found Emma's arms wrapped around him, face buried in his broad chest. Steve smiled, placing a hand on the top of her head.

"Come in, I'll get you something to drink."

Steve made Emma a cup of tea, and once she had calmed down enough, he gathered up the courage to lean over and plant a kiss on her lips. Emma pulled back, surprise evident on her face.

"What?" Steve asked, panic stricken.

"That's the first time you made a move." Emma smiled. Steve rolled his eyes.

"Shut up," he grabbed the back of her head gently, pulling her back to him.

* * *

**I hope you enjoyed! Hopefully the next chapter won't take so long. Please review. **

**By the way, I changed my tumblr url. It is now raised-rory-from-perdition on tumblr. I would love if you were to follow me!**


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